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DIY Webbing Tutorial on a Budget, Part 5: Putting It All Together

By Rain Noe - July 25, 2013

in Materials | Object Culture

In Part 1, we covered materials and hardware. In Part 2, we covered tools. In Part 3, we showed you how to set those tools up for webbing. In Part 4, you learned the crucial Box X stitch.

Now it's time to put it all together and create your own projects. To demonstrate a project from start to finish, and explain some things you'll want to keep in mind as you work on yours, I'll make a dog collar from scratch. Whether or not you own a dog, watching this project being made will be useful, because a collar uses the most common webbing hardware parts: Squeeze-release buckles, a webbing slide for adjustability and a D-ring you can shackle things to. Using these same techniques you can make plenty of non-dog-related items, like the box-carrying harness I showed you in the first video. Once you understand how it all comes together, you can design your own items and start making them.

Hit the jump for some review tips.Things to remember:

- With cotton webbing, always keep the unfinished edges inside your project, and even sandwiched between two other layers if possible. If your machine can handle three layers of cotton webbing, you can double-fold it and stitch the end shut to prevent fraying.

- Always ensure that your hardware has been slid onto your webbing, prior to sewing, in the correct order. If you don't, you'll be getting your money's worth out of that stitch ripper tool.

- When fastening hardware inside of a webbing loop, sew as close as you possibly can to the hardware (while still keeping the two layers compressed) to make that loop as tight as you can. If your loop is too loose, the hardware will have excessive play. That play can in turn cause the webbing to fray at the edges of the loop.

- Study the design of existing webbing-based items to see how they were constructed. A lot of times you'll find smart little details, like the example I showed in the video with the end-tab being on the inside of the collar.

- Think about which direction any forces or friction that might act upon your webbing are coming from, and ask yourself what would happen if a joint failure were to occur at a specific point. Design your object accordingly. The good news is with a Box X stitch you're probably not going to experience a catastrophic failure, where the entire joint gives way at once, but it's just good design to anticipate and plan for it.

To state the obvious: If you've never done this before, sure, your first few projects are likely going to suck—but so what? If you really want to work with webbing, the best way to get good at it is to do it over and over again. Using a sewing machine is like using any other tool—get the reps in, and your confidence and competence will grow.

If your object failed, refine the design, examine your technique, and go back to the drawing board.

For someone like me whose only design school instruction was in working with rigid materials, it's really satisfying to be able to create things out of webbing. (And even more satisfying that it can be done fairly cheaply.)

The first one of you that makes something cool out of webbing, puts it up on their Coroflot page with good images and lets me know about it, is going to get a handsome Flotspotting write-up!

» DIY Webbing Tutorial on a Budget, Part 1: Materials & Hardware
» DIY Webbing Tutorial on a Budget, Part 2: Tools You'll Need
» DIY Webbing Tutorial on a Budget, Part 3: How to Set Up Your Sewing Machine for Webbing
» DIY Webbing Tutorial on a Budget, Part 4: Learning the Crucial "Box X" Stitch
» DIY Webbing Tutorial on a Budget, Part 5: Putting It All Together

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Eric Strebel

9 years ago

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Rain,
Hi. I know you love sewing machines and you have mentioned some of the old singer machines. I am unable to find an article about what singer would be good for me as I desinger for the occasional soft-goods project. I am leaving a comment since I am unable to find a link on the site to send you an email directly. Basically I am looking for one of these restored singers you have mentioned in the past article and perhaps the fellow you purchased them from. I assume if they can sew webbing they can do leather as well?
Best

Eric@botzen.com

Thanks

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SewNotWork

10 years ago

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Thanks for the videos. I was having trouble with sewing through webbing and found your tutorial. I have a similar machine a Singer 15-91. What a difference it makes to adjust the bobbin tension. I wondered if you hand-cranked the wheel the whole time when you sewed the webbing? If so, why?
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Mark H

11 years ago

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I liked the endings of the first four parts and missed it in this one, so I'll say it myself.

Thank you.
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Toby

11 years ago

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A very nice series, thanks for putting it together. For the lazy, you can get dual-adjust 1in. buckles, which make it very easy to take a piece of climb-spec or mil-spec nylon webbing and make a decent belt just by cutting to length and melting the ends. I have also done lots of belts with single-adjust buckles, not as handsomely as your box X, but by either hand-stitching with .8mm bead cord or setting a big grommet.
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