Fabric and Wooden Bead Bracelet Tutorial

Here's a little bracelet I was playing around with the other day in an attempt to use up some scrap material ;) It turned out OK!

What you need:

• Scrap fabric
• Wooden beads
• Embroidery thread and needle
• Clasp
• Short length of chain
• Two jump rings

What to do:

First of all, sew a tube of fabric that is wide enough to slide your biggest bead through and long enough to go around your wrist. Check out Fabric and Bead Necklace Tutorial for how to do that bit.

Next, attach your clasp to a jump ring, and tie the jump ring onto the end of your embroidery thread.

Thread wooden beads onto your embroidery thread so that you have enough for the length of your fabric tube, leaving a largish gap between each bead. This actually ended up being too many beads - leave a bigger gap.

Add a bit of sticky tape to the other end of the embroidery thread so your beads don't slide off while you're doing the rest of the steps.

Slide the fabric tube over your beaded thread.

Using a running stitch to stitch embroidery thread around the end of the fabric tube. If you want the ends of the bracelet to look neater, fold the edge of the fabric tube inwards first. I don't mind the look of the raw fabric edge :) Of course, this won't last as long either.

Make sure the clasp is outside of the fabric tube and all the beads are inside, then pull the running stitch tight. Tie a knot to secure the end. A couple of knots if you want ;)

Push the first bead up to the clasp end of the tube as firmly to the end as you can. 

Now you have two options:

* Option One *

Don't snip the thread. Push the needle back into the fabric tube just below where you tied it off and push it back out just past the first bead.Wrap the thread around the outside of the fabric and knot it off. Repeat this for each bead in your bracelet.

* Option Two *

Snip the thread. Tie a knot just after the first bead. Knot it into place. Snip the thread and repeat for each bead in your bracelet.

Option two is pretty easy and fast, but you see the raw edges of the trimmed off knots. Option one is a neater finish. I kind of like the look of option two for this one, especially with the raw edges of the fabric showing.

To finish the bracelet, attach the short length of chain to the jump ring and tie the jump ring to the end of the beaded embroidery thread. 

Now repeat an earlier step - stitch a running stitch around the edge of the fabric tube, pull it tight and knot it off. Make sure the jump ring is outside of the fabric tube :) Trim all the loose threads and, if you want, attach a charm to the end of the extension chain.

Ta da!