How to make a "Butterfly" belt
One thing I like to try and do with items held in the Memorial's collection is to get an understanding of how they were made or how they were used. So thought I would investigate how Australian soldiers made the beautiful butterfly belts we hold in our collection. Made from pieces of butterfly wing, cigarette packet cellophane and other items, this type of trench art was very popular in the South West Pacific and belts were made for family and friends or to be sold.
Some belts were only made with clear cigarette cellophane. Others have cigarette cellophane interwoven with coloured cellophane, or have pieces of paper or butterfly wings encased within the cigarette cellophane to create vibrantly coloured items. Belt buckles were made from aluminium, perspex, carved mother of pearl or celluloid. The examples above and below show how varied the cellophane belts made in the war were.
In order to explain the technique, I thought I would use strips of different coloured paper, rather than try using cellophane. Unfortunately, modern wrapping cellophane is not as thick or strong as the old cigarette cellophane and generally does not fold well to make these belts. As it is nearly December, this could be a possible Christmas craft.
TECHNIQUE: I worked out the technique used by Australian soldiers by examining examples held in the Memorial's collection. I have found explaining the technique here a bit of a challenge, so I hope it is not too difficult to understand. Once you get going it is very easy to do. In order to show the basic technique used in the construction of these belts, I used paper in two colours (red and yellow) to illustrate the directions of the weaving.
Materials: 8 sheets of coloured paper (8 sheets of coloured A4 paper is enough to make a 'belt' (or streamer) approximately 1.5 metres long). You will need to cut the paper into strips of the following lengths:
- 2 strips measuring 10cm long x 1.2cm wide (1 of each colour)
- 4 strips measuring 16cm long x 1.2cm wide (2 of each colour)
- the rest measuring 20cm long x 1.2cm wide.
(Note: I made the width of the paper strips 1.2cm wide, which was the width I needed so that the width of four strips equaled the length of a strip. The width doesn't have to be exact, but it does need to be close. The advantage of using paper is that if a piece is slightly too wide, you can trim it down with scissors. When the soldiers were making the cellophane versions, the width of the strip was greater than what I used and they folded it lengthwise to get the right width, before folding it into quarters as described below).
Step 1: Fold each strip in half, open and then fold each end to the centre and then fold at the centre again. The 10cm strips will fold down to about 2.5cm in length, the 16cm strips to about 3.75cm and the 20cm strips to about 5cm in length. You don't have to fold all the strips at once, but can make batches as you work on your belt.

Step 2: Thread one red 3.75cm and one red 5cm piece through the inner section of the folded yellow 2.5cm piece (pictures 1 - 3).

Step 3: Weave a yellow 3.75cm piece over the shorter red piece and inside the longer red piece (pictures 1 - 2). The pattern should match on each side of the 'belt'. Then weave a 5 cm yellow piece inside the short red piece and over the longer red piece (pictures 3-5).


Step 4: Weave a 5cm red piece into the end of the 3.75cm yellow piece and over the 5cm yellow piece (pictures 1 & 2)

Step 5: - weave yellow 5cm piece.

Step 6: weave red 5cm piece

Step 7: Continue weaving, following steps 5 and 6 until you create a belt with a chequered pattern.
Step 8: Once you reach the desired length, finish the body of the belt with a 5cm yellow piece and weave a 3.75cm yellow piece through the end of the last 5cm red piece (picture 1). Then weave a red 3.75cm piece through the last two yellow piece (picture 2).

Step 9: The final 2.5cm piece is woven in a different fashion to the other pieces and can be a little difficult to explain so bear with me! Slightly unfold the 2.5cm piece (picure 1) and insert one end into the underside of the 5cm yellow piece and then the 3.75cm piece of the 'belt' (picture 2). Fold under the 'belt' (picture 3) and bring the other half of the piece over the top side of the 'belt' (picture 4). Insert the end into the last two yellow pieces in the 'belt' through the 5cm piece and down into the 3.75cm piece (picture 5), this secures the 'belt' (picture 6).

Once you have the basic technique down, you can vary it with different colour combinations, different widths and lengths of the paper or you can change the number of pieces you weave.

Finally, you don't just have to just make belts, you can make other items, such as bracelets or napkin rings (below), or make long lengths for some lovely and original celebration streamers.