DIY Elastic Waist Belt with 3D-printed buckles

Elastic waist belts from online stores were so tight. I wondered if I could make my own with some wide frilly elastic and PETG filament.

3D design & print

Kei

Can you model and 3D print a belt buckle for me?

Stuz

Sure, tell me what you need.

Kei

A simple black bar with a 40mm x 3mm gap for elastic, and maybe hearts for the fastener?

Stuz

Click, drag, tap… Here we go.

3D printed belt buckle to make a wide elastic waist belt. — 3D printed belt buckle for a wide elastic belt with heart fasteners

Kei

Ta! I like the pattern you put on the top surface.

Stuz

It’s called the Hilbert Curve.

Sewing it together

I had a few metres of 5cm-wide frilly elastic lying around; they were too rough to sew onto my skirts as exposed waist bands. (The joy of online shopping 🙃) The 4cm opening of the buckles were the perfect size to get the frills standing and keep the buckle looking subtle.

To make the belt, the the end of the elastic was pulled through the buckle, folded over and cover stitched to stop it from fraying.

Then, it was folded over again and lock stitched into place.

Sewing a wide elastic waist belt with 3d printed buckle

This was repeated on the other side after measuring how long I’d want the elastic to be, keeping it super comfy without falling down.

Kei

This is looking better than expected.

3D printed buckles turned into wide elastic waist belt

3D printed buckles turned into wide elastic waist belt with heart snap fasteners

And here’s the finished elastic waist belt 😀 It sits perfectly even though it’s loose fitting (I can’t even feel it’s there), and it works great with dresses and casual kimonos.