Suspenders / Braces With Plastic Buckles

I use suspenders / braces instead of belts and generally buy the cheap kind, I don't care how they look since I wear them under my untucked shirt. I just prefer them to belts since I don't like the tight feeling around my waist and they feel more secure. However, the cheap ones come with cheap clasps that aren't up to much and break easily.

So here I have replaced the clasps with sturdy plastic buckles. Some people use metal trigger hooks, which are good too, but I find they can be cold against the skin and pluck hairs from my hairy belly, which is annoying.

Also, taking down your pants in the toilet doesn't require any disrobing - just pop the plastic buckles - click, clack, very satisfying.

Also I'm think plastic buckles might get through metal detectors at airports which is nice.

Supplies

I got 4 buckles off an old retired back pack, but you can buy packs of them online on amazon and the like.

I used the small Japanese saw you can see in this image, and a vice. The more precise your saw the better, though you may be able to do this with a box cutting blade and some skill and patience.

And of course I had an old pair of cheap suspenders / braces from which I removed the useless clasps that they came with.

Step 1:

Pop a buckle in two and place one half in the vice, the clip side down. Make one cut with the saw in the top most strip of plastic, a little off center like the picture.

Step 2:

Make another cut in the same half buckle, a few millimeters away from the cut.

The intention is to remove enough plastic so you can slip material through the gap with relative ease, but not so much that the material can too easily slip out again when in use.

You will need to take into account the thickness (and width!) of the intended material on both the suspenders and the trouser belt loops. I just eye-balled these and some were a little fiddly getting on the ends of the suspenders, but that had more to do with the loop in the end of the suspenders being so tightly stitched.

Step 3:

Now feed the material of the suspenders through one side of the buckle, and the appropriate belt loop through the corresponding side of the buckle. And you're done.

If you like this idea, you can buy a pack of buckles you like, and attach them to the end of your suspenders, and then take all the corresponding clips from the pack of buckles and put them on various of your trousers or shorts you intend to use with the suspenders - so you don't have to be constantly removing and re-attaching buckle ends to belt loops. The plastic buckles are small and discreet and will probably be fine even in the washing machine should you neglect to remove them.

This method could also be used to carry a key ring or small bag of some kind from your belt loop.

Let me know if you tried this out, have suggestion's for improving or tweaks of the idea or whatever. Thanks for reading.