Yet Another Bracelet

This is another bracelet design I came up with, and there's not much I can say about it for the introduction, so let's just get straight to business.

I'm making my bracelets for sale, and currently I was making a batch of four, so you can see some additional details on photos. May them not confuse you.

P.S.: Sorry for a little bit obscure photos.

First of all we need to make a basis piece. It's a strip of thin stiff leather (or other suitable material), which will be wrapped with thin pliable leather afterwards. The lenght depends on the circumference of your wrist (plus a couple centimetres to secure the buckle), and the width has to be a couple millimetres narrower than the buckles oppening (or two thicknesses of wrapping leather narrower to be precise)

Now we need to cut "the wrap". I'm using remains of old leather jacket (and also some leather pants). It should be a rectangular piece three thicknesses (plus a couple of mm) wide and at least two centimeters longer then the basis strip.

It is much easier and precise to cut thin stretchy leather if to attach strips of scotch or masking tape to the places where the cuts are going to be.

Test the piece by wraping it arond the basis strip as shown on the photo.

Glue the basis to the middle of the wrap aligning it wit one of the edges. I'm using a glue stick for tasks like this.

My wrapping piece was too long so I trimmed it bit, but still it's not the final size (we'll deal with it later),

Cut the corners of the wrap at the place where it's longer than the basis as shown on the picture. I'm using a hole punch to get smother inner corners.

Bend the edges of the wrap and glue them down. Leave a little gap between the edge and the basis piece.

Making opening for the buckle pin.

Punching holes for securing the buckle.

Punching holes for the fastening. It is pretty straight forward task but here's a little tricky part about measuring the spacing of the holes about which I'll mention a bit later.

Remember the tab at the end we've left earlier? We need now to make holes for securing it in place. It will finish the end edge of the bracelet at the end. Bend sides of the wrap piece inwards and then bend the tab ontop of it to make markings. The line on the photo is for the final cut, and the dots are for the holes. Make holes at the tab and at the body of a bracelet.

Mark the edges of the wrap piece and make holes for sewing (it's better to do on the inner side thiugh). And this is where I'm mentioning the fastening holes spacing. In order to make to make the design (which will become more clear later) work we need to make sure that stitching holes are correspond with the fastening openings in certain way. But don't worry too much it's really easy. Just use the distance between the stitches at the edge as a fraction for the distance between the fastening openings. For example I had 5mm distance between the stitching holes and 2cm between fastening holes (1/4:1). You'll get the idea later.

Now ewerything is ready for the sewing, but before I'll get there, I want to say a couple of words about marketing...

I don't like it.

And NOW it's time for sewing. In this design we're accomplishing the whole bracelet with a single piece of string, which is cool, because, personally I don't like all this put-the-thread-in-the-neadle king of stuff very much. And for this reason make sure you're getting long enough piece of string. My bracelet was 31cm long and the lenght equiall to the width of my stretched aside hands was barely enough.

Secure one neadle at each end of the thread.

First of all we have to secure the buckle. Bend the edges of the wrap inwards and put the pin of the buckle through the opening. Position the buckle in place and align previously punched goles. Pull the neadles from the back and position the middle of the thread between the oppenings. Make by one loop arond the front with each neadle and by one loop around the centre section on the back. You'll end up with the thread sticking up at the front. Make one lopp arond each side at the adge, and make then by one more loop, but instead pulling the neadle through the opening, lead it underneath the wrapping. Make sure you're pulling it tight after each stitch.

Now, when the buckle is secured, it's time for the decorative stitching (or rather lacing) on the face of the bracelet. The possition of the neadles on the photo makes it clear, how the shevron pattern is created: one stitch to the left, one to the right (not simultaneously (unless you're a wizard or... something). Don't be concerned too much with the tightness of the lacing, it is a good thing to tighten it up with a crocheting hook afterwards anyway.

Keep stitching untill the first fastening opening. This is where the whole hole correspondance thing take place. Because we're not making holes on the face of the bracelet for the buckle pin to came through, we have to make a gap in the stitching to create an opening for it. In order to do you need to make one plane stitch along the edge with each neadle without switching the neadlle to the other side, where the fastening opening is. Then return to the previous stitching pattern. Visually it should look like a hexagonal shape around the opening created by a thread. Make as many shevron type stitches before the next opening, and repeat the maneuver. Nov you can see how it's important to have the stitch lenght for the fraction of hole spacing to get the similar number of shevron stitches between the openings.

Here's how it looks on the finnished bracelet. And if it looks kind of erotic to you... I'm 28, Leo, dark hair, grey eyes, feeling awkward with living creatures, had a cat...

Finish the stitching by pulling both neadles to the back of the bracelet through the openings we've already made. Make loops arond the middle catching the tab, make loops around the sides. Pull it tight, and fix the thread with super glue before cutting it off completly. Or do it in more ellegant way by cutting the thread first leaving a little bit sticking out, melting the ends with lighter or a match and then pushing it down with a finger whilw melted (if you're using synthetic thread).

The edge of the part of the bracelet that bends the buckle is often turns to be uneven, so trim it if it's the case. Also it's a good dthing to trim the thicknes of the wrapping leather beforehand at this part to reduce the bulk in the area (I was to lazy to do so).

Now the bracelet is almost finished, and the last deail is the loop. I'm making a couple of them for this particular bracelet.

I don't want to get into great details here. There's nothing specific about it and the photos make the process it clear enough.

And this is it. On the photos you can see a couple of bracelets of different sizes I've done. You can see the stitching pattern on one of them looks like it's not interrupted by the parallel to the edge stitches at the openings. It's an option too, just make a loop around the edge and right to the next hole in the row (I prefere the first variant though).

So, this is it for now. Thank you for your attention and I hope you're not a Scorpio.