Obi Belt

I have loved the look of wide belts for quite some time now, but I was never sure if I could "pull it off."  Not to sound like a dumb-butt but I was never sure what to wear them with...and I didn't want to invest all that money in an awesome wide belt, only to have it sit in my closet for years to come.   So, I decided to whip one up to see if I could "pull it off."  Hence the creation of my little blue obi belt.

Hmm, I'm thinking that perhaps I should
clean the bathroom mirror before
taking a picture in it...

I had some silk dupioni left over from an old project and had just enough to make a four inch wide belt.

To make it I basically measured my waist and then decided how long I wanted the belt (I wanted mine to not quite touch in the back so I made it about three inches shorter than my waist measurement).  I then interfaced one side of the belt and cut each tie to be about the length of my waist.  I sewed each tie together inside out and then turned the tube right side out.  I then sewed the waist piece and the ties together inside out, leaving a two inch gap, turned it right side out, and hand sewed the gap closed.

My word to the wise for next time is to interface the entire waist piece.  I cut my interfacing about an inch smaller than the silk waist piece and the belt kind of folds over at the edges which drives me a bit crazy.  Other than though I think it turned out okay.

As for whether I can pull it off, the jury is still out.  I'm thinking that this tends to look better when worn with looser shirts and in trying to find something to wear with it I discovered that apparently I wear only skin-tight shirts because I could not find any loose fitting shirts (the brown one worn above is actually a maternity shirt).  Which leads me to wonder "when did I become so skanky?"