Resizing Your Leather Belt: A Complete Illustrative Guide

All of 72 Smalldive belts may be shortened. To resize your belt for a better fit, we advise cutting the belt strap instead of adding additional belt holes. Before re-sizing your belt, please read our belt size guide  to determine the correct belt fit for you. 

TOOLS YOU WILL NEED

Tools I Need to Resize A Belt

A Measuring tape or ruler B Leather hole puncher pliers C A pair of shears or scissors for leather D Pencil E Flat-head screwdriver 9 mm F Micro-fibre fabric G Slim width strong adhesive tape

 Additional notes:
  • We recommend using a short length flat head screw driver for better grip.
  • If you are resizing a weave belt, you will need also need a roll of slim-width (8-9 mm) resilient adhesive tape.This adhesive tape should not bulk up when wound over the belt strap a few times. 

STEP 1: OBSERVE HOW BELT PARTS ARE ASSEMBLED

Important Functional Parts of An Assembled 72 Smalldive Belt

  • Before dismantling the belt, observe how the various parts of the belts have been assembled together.

  • We recommend taking a few pictures with your phone.

  • Pay additional attention to how belt loops 1 and 2 are held together to the buckle. 

  • This will serve useful when you have to re-assemble the belt after resizing it.

STEP 2: LOOSEN HOLDING RIVET

Loosening Holding Rivet of a 72 Smallive Belt

  • Lay fabric on your workbench and place belt, underside facing up, on fabric.

  • The fabric serves as a protection to your work top, buckle, and also to prevent the holding rivet from rolling off the workbench. 

  • Loosen the holding rivet with the flat head screwdriver. The groove of the rivet is shallow, take extreme care when loosening with screwdriver.

  • Use a screwdriver with a flat head width of approximately 9 mm, not longer nor shorter to ensure the groove of the rivet is not damaged.

  • To loosen the holding rivet, apply a firm but gentle pressure on screwdriver to the groove and turn anti-clockwise slowly with 1-2 turns.

  • Once loosened, dismantle the holding rivet, using your fingers, turning  rivet anti-clockwise.

STEP 3: MARK LENGTH TO BE DISCARDED

Measuring and Cutting Belt Strap

  • Mark the length to be discarded with a pencil and ruler

  • The discarded length must be measured from the edge of the belt strap that is attached to buckle. 

  • Avoid using a pen to mark your belt; ink stains are permanent on leather surfaces.

  • Before cutting your belt, verify the next steps

    • Refer to Step 3A if you have to cut a weave belt. 

    • Continue to the next point if you are cutting non-weave belt

  • Use a sharp pair of shears or a pair of heavy duty scissors for a clean cut to avoid tears and fray. 

  • Do not discard the removed portion of the belt, it will be needed in Step 4 and 5. 

STEP 3A: CUTTING A WEAVE BELT


  • After measuring the length to be cut away, use the adhesive tape to wound over and across the belt strap where it will be cut.

  • This ensures that the belt does not unravel into individual belt strands 

  • Do not wound too tightly as it will misshapen the belt

  • Do not tape over too may layers as it may prevent the belt from being inserted into the buckle later. 

  • Ideal adhesive tapes are sartorial gauze tape, surgical tape, or even slim width duct and electrical tapes with resilient adhesive. 

STEP 4: MARKING NEW POSITION FOR HOLDING RIVET

Marking Position of New Belt Hole

  • Position the removed portion of the belt strap (cut strap) over the resized belt strap as illustrated.

  • This will help you quickly determine the new hole position on the resized belt strap.

  • You may also determine it through measurements.

  • Mark the new position with a pencil or scoring/denting it with a sharp object (if underside of the belt is dark in color).     

STEP 5: PUNCHING A NEW HOLE FOR HOLDING RIVET

  • It is necessary to determine the correct hole size before punching the new hole

  • Place the hole from the removed portion through the punch heads of the hole puncher.  

  • The punch head that fits snugly through the hole will the one to use to punch on the resized belt strap, usually it is gauge number between 3-3.5.

  • Once determined, go ahead to punch the hole in the re-sized belt strap.

  • You may need to punch twice - once from the underside and once from the upper side to ensure hole is punched through.

STEP 6: RE-ASSEMBLING BELT STRAP AND BUCKLE

  • Ensure the belt loops are correctly placed as illustrated above.

  • Before tightening the holding rivet with a screwdriver, apply a pressure on the head of the holding rivet, ensuring that all assembled parts are held together by the the holding rivet.

  • Apply downward pressure and tighten with screwdriver slowly.

  • You may wish to try the new resized belt length before tightening the rivet completely in case strap needs to be shortened further.