The Girl Wonder | Introduction | Utility Belt

Has anyone had an idea, a simple idea, that ballooned into something larger? Something so incredible you can't believe you didn't think of it earlier? It may now be the best idea ever?

Okay, I may be building this up a bit. Simply put: I am a five year old boy at heart.

I decided that this year for my birthday I would have a Batman themed party. I was really just thinking of going to Target for some party supplies, make a yellow and black cake, and call it good. As I was telling this to a friend of mine, however, she made the statement that "we could all dress up!"

A light turned on. Yes, yes we could dress up.

That is, if everyone was willing. Not everyone enjoys that sort of thing but as luck would have it, my friends are awesome. I've got myself a costume party. Not just any costume party, either. Did I mention we'll be bowling?

This of course means that I'll have to make all kinds of things! There are goodies to bake and costumes to sew! I gave my friends free range and told them it doesn't have to be from Batman if they'd like something else. Funny enough, there will be a Batman but it won't be me.

As the blog title suggests: I'll be Robin. So for the next week I'll be going through the party crafting process. Today is the utility belt.  

Let's get some supplies! For this belt you will need the following:

• Yellow craft foam
• One atrocious belt*
• A ruler
• Scissors
• Glue gun with refills
• Pencil
• Black sharpie (not pictured) 

*When I say "atrocious" I mean it. Look at this thing:

Bling aside, I was lucky enough to find a belt with this kind of buckle, one that has a little knob in the back to fit into the holes, rather than one with a normal buckle. It was more than I would normally like to pay for at a thrift store but it was worth it because it made my life easier.

The first step was to be popping that little cameo piece off for two reasons: it would level out the surface and who knows, it may come in handy for a future project. It wasn't as bad as the rest of the buckle. However, that little thing was really stuck on there and would not give. So I did.

I still needed to level the surface. I cut out two little bits of foam and glued them on. Voila! Solved that problem.

 The next step are the little pouches of the utility belt. Of course, as cool as that would be I'm not really going to make little pouches. We'll stick with square pieces of foam.
First thing I did was measure out the spacing of each square on the belt. I decided on 2" x 2" for the foam and a 3" gap between them. I marked each 2" or 3" spot with a pencil. Then I drew out the squares on the foam. 

 Once you have them all drawn out, cut them out, and glue them on according to those marks you made earlier with your glue gun. I got excited and didn't take a picture at this process, but you can imagine.

Last, the emblem! To cut out my oval I first cut out a piece of foam that was a little larger than the buckle I'm covering. I then folded it in half, drew a half-circle (not perfect, because we want an oval) and cut. 

 Using that dandy sharpie you have waiting nearby, draw on the R. Once it's good and done, glue that last bit on.

The R stands for rad. As in, we have a totally rad utility belt.



There is one more step: put it on and make a superhero pose in your living room. It's required.

Stay tuned for the rest, future crime-fighters! That was the easy part. Also, don't forget to help Smokey prevent forest fires, as the ruler suggests. It's a good start on that crime fighting we were talking about. For real.

xoxo

Stephanie