How to make a superhero utility belt

Aside from capes, to me one of the iconic common denominators of superheroes is the utility belt. It's especially important for that minority of non-powered superheroes and villains out there, since they usually need technology to keep in step with their mutated and magical counterparts. It's also just downright practical for keeping whatever tools or weapons they need for crimefighting. Sometimes the limits of the utility belt are stretched to shark-jumping proportions (looking at you Adam West's Batman), but overall they're a great piece that works with a lot of superhero costumes.

Materials
-Black utility belt
-Travel-size clear toiletry bottles
-Gel bead air freshener
-LED light strip with USB cord
-Power bank
-Cell phone or similar belt holster
-Black spray paint
-Clear coat enamel
-Nylon webbing or black "leather" vinyl strips




Tools

-Scissors

-Needle/thread

-Superglue

1. Gather the materials
As a lot of my projects, it began with me wandering the aisles of a dollar store. I only bought the gel scent beads there, but it got the concept rolling. In a similar vein, I found the travel toiletry containers, the LED light strip, and the power bank at a Five Below store. Although the durability has yet been tested, $5 for a light strip that costs about $20 or more at a home improvement store and $5 for a simple power bank is OK in my book. The basic 2inch black nylon belt was $5, and of course the spray paints are available at any home improvement store. Finally I picked up a magazine pouch at a thrift store, although you could easily substitute with a cell phone holster or similar belt clip.

2. Make the "mystery cannisters"
When I saw the gel beads, I thought they would look great in some sort of clear cannisters at intervals on a utility belt or bandolier. I reason that they could stand in for magazines for an unconventional gun, high-tech grenades, experimental batteries, or other invented superhero devices. Or maybe it's just food pellets or something. Anyway, the simplest way to turn these basic toiletry containers into "cannisters" was with paint.

I took the tops and used black spray paint to make them a uniform color. This took about four light coats to ensure coverage at all angles, though I was careful not to paint the inside. Paint on the inside would be scraped off every time you screw the cap on and off the bottles, probably screwing up the entire paint job. I then topped it with a light coat of clear coat enamel. I've been learning the hard way on other projects to not be heavy-handed on the clear coat enamel. Too heavy and it makes the paint beneath wrinkle and crack, which means you're back to square one. And of course be sure to have enough patience for each coat to completely dry.

Next, simply fill the containers with the scented gel beads. Gently spoon the gel beds in equal amounts to each cannister. I didn't have enough to fill to the top, but whatever. I'm sure you could also use those water beads used for floral arrangements, but the scented beads were the ones that had the most vivid red. You could likely also amp up the color with food coloring, but I didn't have any on hand and I kind of like them as is.

3. Add lights to the belt

To the make the utility belt "powered" I decided to add an LED light strip to it. Maybe this makes no sense, but I kind of like experimenting with lighting elements in costuming (as evidenced in my puck light obsession in the high fantasy and steampunk realms). LED light strips are trendy these days as accent lighting, and for some reason around the edges of TVs. These usually have multiple colors of LED lights, so you can select which color lights to activate, flash, or fade with a remote. The strip I used was a find that is powered by a USB cord, meant to plug into an unused USB port on a TV. To supply power I found a cheap power bank, to be held in a pouch on the belt. 

To ensure that the LED strip will wrap around the entire belt, the pouch holding the power bank should be close to the front buckle.

It took a little adjustment to the LED strip to get it to reliably turn on and off, but found which element of the strip needed to be exposed to receive a signal from the remote. 

Although the LED strip usually comes with an adhesive backing, that's not going to keep it in place on the nylon webbing. Instead, I decided to add a few haphazard cross stitches to keep the strip centered on the belt. 

4. Add cannisters to the belt

Position the cannisters over the LEDs. Then fasten strips of webbing or leftover leather straps to just above the LED strip. Sew down one side, pull the strap tight over the cannister, and then sew tightly down on the other side. Reinforcing the stitches with superglue, or adding another strap on the lower end may also help. 

And there you have it, a basic light-up utility belt with mystery cannisters. Additional attachments could be a holster, communication device, grappling gear, or other useful crime-fighting gear. Good luck and keep crafting!