{"id":3656,"date":"2013-04-09T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T05:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.walkingwithcake.com\/?p=3656"},"modified":"2014-07-15T12:39:17","modified_gmt":"2014-07-15T17:39:17","slug":"guest-post-wrapped-leather-bracelet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.walkingwithcake.com\/?p=3656","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: Wrapped Leather Bracelet"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I hosted my blogger and creative get-together<\/a> recently, my lovely friend Jen was gracious enough to lead us all in a wonderful craft creating wrapped leather bracelets.\u00a0 She did a phenomenal job, so I asked her to share the steps again here.\u00a0 Let me know if you try this bracelet, and please visit Jen on Pinterest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I love any and all crafts, so when Catherine asked me to help out with the craft at her meet-up, I jumped at the chance.\u00a0 The first thing I did was head to Pinterest.\u00a0 I\u2019m pretty new to the site and love it (it can be quite addictive, but is ever so handy).\u00a0 I had several doable looking projects I\u2019d been wanting to try in my DIY-Craft board<\/a>, and decided to give these bracelets<\/a> a go.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While the original pin had easy-to-follow pictures, I struggled a bit, finding it hard to wrap while taped down and then I was messing up the fit because I couldn\u2019t figure out how much of the leather to wrap.\u00a0 I worried that if I had problems with it, others at the meet-up might, too.\u00a0 As a result, I re-did it a bit.\u00a0 Putting the bracelet together the way I\u2019m about to tell you made sense to me, so I thought I\u2019d share what I did, just in case it helps you out, too.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Walking<\/a><\/p>\n

The first thing you want to do is get all your materials together.\u00a0 You\u2019ll need a pair of scissors, some embroidery floss in your favorite colors, Tacky Glue, leather cording (I chose the \u201cLatigo Lace\u201d over the suede), an embroidery needle, and a sharpie marker.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Walking<\/a>Cut a strip of leather.\u00a0 Here\u2019s where you need to think about what you want your final bracelet to look like.\u00a0 For the original pin (less wrapping, more leather), double the length of the bracelet size you want and add two inches.\u00a0 For me, this was 18 inches.\u00a0 If you want to see less leather and more wrapping, add four inches to the doubled length (so for me this would be 20 inches).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Knot both ends.\u00a0 For some, this might be easy to do, but it took me a while to figure it out.\u00a0 If you\u2019re like me, here\u2019s exactly what I did.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Hold the strip of leather about at midpoint in your left hand.\u00a0 Take the right end of the leather strip in your right hand, bring it around to your left hand and tie a knot where you are holding it in your left hand.\u00a0 If you look at it, it should look like a loop with a knot in the middle and a very long tail.\u00a0 Now take the knot into your right hand and pull to slide the tail through your left hand until you get to the end.\u00a0 With your left hand, bring the left end back around the loop (heading towards the first knot) and tie a knot.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Walking<\/a><\/p>\n

Check your fit.\u00a0 If you like the idea of seeing more wrapping and less leather when you wear your bracelet, your knots should be close together–with about half an inch between knots.\u00a0 If want to see more leather (like the original pin), the knots will still be on the bottom of your wrist, but farther apart — about 2 to 2 1\/2 inches between them.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If it\u2019s too big, undo one of the knots, cut off a bit, re-knot, and check the fit again.\u00a0 For my first bracelet, the knotting and fitting part took me the longest, so don\u2019t be discouraged if it\u2019s not perfect the first time. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Walking<\/a><\/p>\n

Open up the bracelet to the point where you can just slide it over your hand, and take it off.\u00a0 (If it\u2019s super easy to take off, you opened it too far).\u00a0 Now, take your sharpie and mark the leather from knot to knot.\u00a0 This will serve as a guideline for where you wrap the embroidery floss, so don\u2019t worry about the sharpie ruining your bracelet.\u00a0 You won\u2019t see it in the end.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Walking<\/a><\/p>\n

Next, undo ONE of the knots.\u00a0 Cut a length of your choice of embroidery floss (about 12-18 inches should be fine).\u00a0 Run a thin line of glue at the start of the sharpie mark (where your knot WAS). Run the end of the floss along the glue (tail pointing down) and begin wrapping, using the sharpie mark as your guideline where to start and wrapping down over the tail and glue.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Walking<\/a><\/p>\n

Continue wrapping.\u00a0 When you want to change colors, cut the color you are currently working with, leaving about a 1\/4 inch tail.\u00a0 Repeat the process with a new color floss, wrapping over the tails of both the former and new color as you go.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Walking<\/a><\/p>\n

When you have reached the end (of your sharpie guideline), thread the floss you are working with through an embroidery needle.\u00a0 Push the needle back through the wrapping you have done and pull the thread through to secure.\u00a0 Trim the thread flush with the bracelet (you\u2019ll have only the tiniest piece sticking out from the wrapping).\u00a0 Now, re-knot the knot you had undone and repeat on the other side (un-do the other knot and wrap along the sharpie guideline, etc).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Walking<\/a><\/p>\n

Tightly pull the knots to secure.\u00a0 Double check your fit and trim any excess ends from the knots.\u00a0 How long you want the tails is up to you.\u00a0 I cut mine pretty short, but still long enough to tug to tighten, if need be.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Walking<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0And here you go, the finished product!\u00a0 These are the three I made.\u00a0 Here you can see the top two are the original pin\u2019s version (more leather showing) and the bottom one (the purple-y one) shows what it looks like if your knots are close together and you have more wrapping and less leather showing. Which look do you prefer?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(All photographs by Jen Perks.\u00a0 Craft adapted from this post<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

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