Summer finally came to town and while people start wearing less and less clothing the only way to stand out from the crowd is to accesorize yourself. I already shared with you an easy way to create a textile summer necklace, now it`s time to show how one can quickly make yourself a braided bracelet with beads.
Materials:
- scraps of knit fabric of nice color
- thread, needle, pins
- scissors
- ruler or tape-measure
- leather cord
- thin metal chain
- 2 wooden beads
- 2 jewelry clasps
- jewelry plier
Step 1. First of all you need to measure you wrist and find out the length you need. I usually measure my wrist at the widest point, where the thumb is attached and deduct the length of clasps afterwards. In that way the bracelet would be easy to put on and it won`t be falling off your hand. My measurement was 7.5 inch ( 19 cm). So if each the clasps is 0.4 inches long I will need to deduct 0.8 inces from 7.5 inch.
7.5 – (0.4 x 2 ) = 6.8 inches (17 cm)
Step 2. Cut three scrap fabric into 6.8 inches (17 cm) long strips. The strips should be approx. 1 cm wide, so that the raw edges turn under.
Gather strips at the edge and fix them with the pin. Now start braiding. Try to keep a nice, even width to your braid.When you get to the end, use another pin to secure the ends of the braid.
Step 3. Put two wooden beads on one of the cords. Line up the braid with the 2 leather cords and a chain. Stitch the braid with the 2 leather cords and a chain together from both ends.
Step 4. Place one edge of the bracelet into the jewelry clasp and sqeeze the clasp with the plier jaws. Make sure it is well squizzed. Repeat the same actions with another edge of the bracelet.
Step 5. Now you only need to connect both sides of the bracelet. Here you can choose between simply connecting clasps with a ring ( as I did ) or attaching a snap so that you could unclasp the bracelet.
Done!
Here is the final result. This tutorial leaves you a lot of space for imagination. By altering materials you can create many different summer gifts for your friends.
