Belt Up

Good morning instructables
last night I made a paracord belt. This is my first instructable so if I have done anything wrong or anyone wants anything making clearer just comment. I finished this at half 2 this morning so was a little blurry eyed and all made sense at the time.

To create the belt I used a few basic hand tools and some para cord.

Lighter
Knife/scissors
Tape measure
Fid (optional)

9m grey paracord 29 and 1/2 foot
6m Orange paracord 19 and 1/2 foot
4m black paracord 13 foot.

I worked in metric but put it in old money for the older generation and our American cousins.

Follow these 30 steps and hopefully you will have something resembling a belt.

Cut to length your paracord seal the ends and make a loop in the middle of each piece.
( I just got the loose ends and folded the cord in half )

Put the grey loop thought the Orange loop and cross the Orange cords in front.

Bring up the 2 ends of the grey cord in front of the loops and pass them back through the grey and Orange loop.

Push up the black loop through the Orange loop but behind the grey loop.

Push the grey grey loop backwards through the black loop and pull the black cord down to tighten the loop around the grey cord.

Pull all the cords to tighten up the knot you should have something like this.

Hopefully you are still with me and not gone too wrong. If I am going too fast and need to further explain anything just comment below. Everything makes sense to me but I am sat here with the cord in my hand and not trying to read how to do this.

You should now have 3 cords to the left and 3 cords to the right. Pull the cords and straighten them out as the picture.

Make a loop with the grey cord on top of the black cord and under the Orange.

Feed the Orange cord under the grey and black and up through the grey loop then pull tight.

Just a repeat of step 9 to make a second knot and pull tight.

Repeat again to make a third knot and pull tight.

Mirror steps 9,10+11 on the left hand side.

Pull all the cords tight and tighten all the knots so they are identical. A bit like this.

Now take the black cords and pull the right over to the left, behind the black and grey through the loop to make your first ring.

Repeat steps 9,10,11+12 to create this little beauty.

Now tie off with the black cord but this time tie them the opposite way left over right round the back and back through tighten to make the second ring.

Repeat again the same 3 knots on the left then 3 knots on the right tie the ring with the black cord alternating from right over left to left over right until you reach the desired length. I did 32 rings in total.

Now you have got to here ( untying and retying ) I went back over all the knots and with my fid retightened and pulling the cords to get them all uniform.

To finish off the tie the black cords as in steps 14 + 16 depending what you are upto right over left or left over right ( think I more of one than the other I kept forgetting what knot I did last ) I think I finished right over left as in step 14

Now turn the whole thing over so you are working on the back.

Now pass the left black cord over the 2 grey and black then behind all 3 other cords and back through the black loop.

Pull all the cords tight snip off and seal the ends with the lighter ( don't laugh at my pink lighter its probs not the manliest thing I own )

This is where my brain melted It took half an hour and 4 attempts to get it right I have broken this down as best I could.

Making the end ball knot take the left grey cord and make a loop.

Make another different loop with the right grey cord

Pass the end of the right cord under the left cord.

Pull the loop made with the left cord over the right loop.

Take the end of the right cord and pass it through the loops and out through the middle hole as shown.

Now take the left hand end and pass this through the mess of cords and out the middle hole

Now with the take the left and pass it over the right round the back and through the middle hole.

Pull the cords a little at a time to make the knot until it's neat and tidy.

Just snip the ends close to the ball and seal.

To fasten the belt there are a few different ways

If you have made it to exact length then just pass the end knot through the start loop

To lock this off just slip the end ball knot back through the 2 grey cords.

If it's a longer belt then just pass the end ball knot through one of the rings and back through the front.

You can also lock this off by passing the end ball knot back through the 2 grey cords.

Total length of the belt measures 1.3m or 4 foot 3 inch

Hope you like my instructable if so I will be doing an instructable on my torch wrap with lanyard and a leatherman pouch that attach to the belt using the rings of the belt and a ball knot to secure them.

Oh and please vote for me in the paracord challenge :-)