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Show MAKE IT ff)j YOURS l 1 : ilJ. Braided belt over blazers By ELLEN APPEL Copley News Service This fall, with clothes more expensive than ever, why not update last year's fashions with new accessories, accesso-ries, especially with belts you can braid yourself in colorful cords. f,,',TJus' year, practically eryUiing is belted, including blazers, sweaters, and even winter-weight jackets. The belt buckles over the garment, gar-ment, pulls in the waist, and slims the body. With waists so important these days, belts are everywhere, every-where, in all shapes, colors and sizes. They range from pencil-thin wraparounds to cummerbunds wide enough to overlap an underwired bra. For belting bulky sweaters and blazers, however, how-ever, the best approach is a mid-size belt. Braided belts, which you can make yourself, your-self, are perfect, and also as colorful as desired. Braiding a belt is as easy as braiding hair. The methods meth-ods are practically the same. The difference is the number of strands in the braid. In braiding a child's pigtails, pig-tails, the braider divides the hair into three strands. In contrast, belts require at least eight strands. As in pigtails, which have thousands thou-sands of hairs in each "strand," the belt strands may also have several cords In each strand. However, no matter how many cords, strands or colors you use, the technique is still simple. Here are the directions for a braided belt. In colors to match all your sweaters and blazers, they're ideal fashion updates for fall. MATERIALS: You'll need threads, cords, or yarns with little or no stretch. Shiny rayons are especially pretty for belts. The number of yards you'll need depends upon the thickness of the cords. For a typical 36-inch belt, you'll need 64 yards of cord. Other supplies are scissors, scis-sors, ruler, two large oval or rectangular rings for the buckle, T-pins, and a knotting knott-ing board. STARTING: 1. Cut cords into 16 four-yard lengths. 2. Fold each cord in half. 3. Tie each cord to both rings using a reverse lark's head knot. REVERSE LARK'S HEAD KNOT: 1. Loop folded fold-ed end over rings (a). 2. Pull ends through the loop (b) BRAIDING THE BELT: 1- Pin rings to knotting board. 2. Divide cords into eight groups. 3. Braid each group as follows: 4. Bring the left cord over the cord to its right. 5. Start- ing with an u'r :, weave the WW"; through the other 6. Repeat stepsf 1 the length of U f FINISHING: 1. cords into fourf: Make an overto each group. 3-1 - BUCKUNG THE 1. Starting from the rings, slip es through both rings .. . belt over the W under the bottom PuU belt to tighten |