A Beaded Belt

These belts were very popular wedding gifts for young ladies of the Quattrocento. Here I will show you how I made one of my own.

Here we see an actual belt from the period. This one is Venetian, but the principles are going to be the same -- a series of metal plaques affixed to a silken belt, with a fancy metal clasp or buckle.

This belt is from the Victoria & Albert Museum, England.

A beaded belt.

To make this belt, I first took two dark blue 1/2" ribbons and sewed them together to make one 7/8" wide belt. Then I mounted the ribbons onto something a bit firmer (in this case, a 3/4" wide silken ribbon I'd gotten from somewhere and decided I didn't like).

Then I sewed plain dark-yellow gimp braid in a wavy pattern to the blue ribbon. It looked a bit plain, so I then sewed amber rocaille beads into every other big gap in the gimp braid. It still looked plain, so I sewed bronze-colored glass seed beads (10/0) into every smaller loop in the gimp braid.

Right side of the beaded belt.

Well gosh, it still didn't look quite gaudy enough, so I sewed hematite-colored seed beads around the braid. I still wasn't happy with that so I embroidered, in 3-strand golden-yellow floss, a counterchanging wavy pattern. It still wasn't enough so I embroidered another and then beaded bright-golden seed beads between the two waves.

At that point I discovered pearls and sewed 4mm pearls where you see them. I thought it'd look neat to have pearls just dripping off the belt, so I used silk needlepoint floss (Alyce Schroth, from Hedgehog Handworks, in Navy Blue) to suspend 8mm pearls from the belt. Every loop is knotted securely.

Finishing the Belt

To finish the belt, I used a simple cloak clasp (acquired from Dragonfly Designs, but not hard to find). I realized that I'd need a bit more support if this belt was going to support a pouch, so I asked Scott over at Viking Trader to make me a 3/4" belt with holes punched all along the edges. I sewed that to the back of the belt.

Next time? I'll be a bit more precise with the waves and I'll know better how to embroider -- this was a major learning experience. And of course I'll knot the 8mm pearls in better -- they tend to slip a lot in that needlepoint silk.

Be aware that this belt isn't completely documented. Besides an offhand comment about beaded belts being popular wedding-day gifts, and a few portraits of ornate belts, I haven't got much to go on! I just thought it was pretty and it goes nicely with a fancy Italian dress.

This page last updated: July 10, 2009

All text copyright Vangelista di Antonio Dellaluna, except where otherwise noted. All portraits are understood to be copyright- free and are presented as research aids only.