DIY Chain Belt

What do you wear to your dance classes? 🙂

I often wonder how belly dance instructors always look so beautiful, and I’ve noticed that many of them dress very nicely even when they are teaching. When I attended the workshop by Mercedes Nieto last year, she was wearing this beautiful belt chain over her teaching outfit, and I wanted to re-create it 😀

So in this video, you’ll see how I made this gold chain belt that can be worn over any practice outfit or even costumes. So let’s get started!

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To make this DIY Chain Belt, you need:

Chains – I’m using exactly the same chain as one I used for the thigh chain jewelry DIY. I used about 2.7m.

Jump rings – I used 2 different sizes, but any size works as long as they are large enough to hold a few chains.

Clasp

Things to decorate the belt with – this is optional, but I had these earrings I wanted to recycle, so you’ll see how I used them in this belt.

Pliers

How to Make DIY Chain Belt

First, measure your belt line. This is not your waistline. This is where you want the belt to sit. And divide that number by 4. For example, my belt line was 82cm, so divide it by 4, and I get 20.5cm. I made it 20cm because I’m going to add jump rings and the medallions from the earrings which will compensate for the length.

So cut 4 pieces of chains in that length.

Then add 2.5cm or 1in to the length, and cut 4 more pieces in the new length.

And again, add 2.5cm or 1 more in to the length, and cut 4 more pieces in this length.

So you now have 3 sets of chains in 3 different lengths. And each set has 4 pieces.

First, take the shortest set of chains, lay them out with jump rings in between. And connect them like this: say, the 4 points represent front, right side, back and left side. Then at one of the sides, add a clasp to one end and a jump ring to the other end.

If you have medallions like I do here from my earrings, I want one in the front and one in the back, so I connected them with jump rings in between 2 pieces of chains. If you have no medallions, just connect with jump rings like the rest.

Except for the jump rings at the medallions, you can leave the rest of jump rings open for now.

Next, take the medium length set of chains, and lay them out outside of the first chains. And take the longest set of chains, and lay them out outside of the medium ones. Then join them all at the jump rings. At medallions, I added new jump rings and connected them at lower points.

And that’s it! It’s pretty simple, but looks cute to wear it over practice pants or layer it with an over skirt or hip scarf. If you like, you can add more decoration, and it’s a great project to recycle your old earrings and necklaces.

Hope you liked this gold belt chain DIY, and if you make your own, please share a photo on Sparkly Belly’s Facebook page. And remember to sign up for the Sparkly Belly newsletter from the below link for updates and special freebies that I share only with newsletter subscribers.

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Thanks for reading, and keep sparkling!

P.S. Here’s a summary photo to pin! 😉