Spring Bling

My daughter, Ophelia, recently added a silver colored belt she'd outgrown to our giveaway pile, but my love of all things shiny required that I fish it out. So glad I did! After a little cutting, gluing and sewing, there were five one of a kind and ready to wear pieces wherethere had previously only been the one

Materials*silver belt*3 spring clips *2"piece of very stretchy 3/4" wide elastic*13" piece of 3/8" wide elasticThe Cuff:To make the cuff bracelet I cut off enough of the belt strap to wrap almost all the way around my wrist, minus two inches. Then, cut a 2" piece of super stretchy elastic and burnt the ends of the elastic for just a second with a lighter to keep the ends from fraying.

All that was need to finish was sewing the two ends of the elastic to each end of the belt. I opted to do this part on my sewing machine to save time, though it could've been accomplished just as easily by hand sewing.

Because of my tendency toward being rough on things and the cuff's extremely snug fit, I ran an extra line of stitches on each side. This reinforcement would help the sewing better withstand the stress of pulling the bracelet on and off.

The Headband:The process for making the headband was the same as getting the cuff together: plan out the lengths of the belt and elastic strip I'd be using, then sew them together on my machine.The one way I deviated the construction of the headband from the cuff was by giving the area where the belt was sewn to the elastic a more detailed finish.Right over the line of stitches at the bottom of the belt piece I hot glued an extra piece of elastic. I put just a little glue on the elastic at a time, pulled it tight and then wrapped it a few times around the belt in a crisscross.Totally unnecessary step, but nice to look at.The Hair Clips:For each clip I cut a piece of the belt that was the same length as the spring clip, plus an additional 1/8" on each side, hot glued it into place...

...and Ta-da! Done!

The easiest and by far my favorite of the three!

Thank you, Ophelia, for providing the inspirational item for this project! Five new accessories in less than 30 minutes = awesome.

TOOLS NEEDED:*glue gun*scissors*needle and thread*lighter