DIY CRAFT TUTORIALS

DIY Leather Wrap Bracelet Tutorial

We have another free jewelry-making tutorial for you today on the Golden Age Beads blog! This
article will explain step by step, complete with photos, exactly how to make a beautiful boho / gypsy
style leather double wrap bracelet. Wrap bracelets like this one are right on trend for spring/summer
and can be worn with either casual or dressy outfits.
For this jewelry-making project, you’ll need the following materials:
To make the bracelet:
Selection of beads of your choice. Round beads or gemstones work well – this tutorial
uses 6mm turquoise beads.
Brown leather cord (around 40 inches).
Brass button shank for bracelet closure.
Gold Nymo beading thread and beading needle.
Scissors.

To make the tassel (optional):

Gold embroidery thread.
 Small square of cardboard.
2 x gold plated 8mm jump rings.
1 x gold plated eyepin.
1 x gold plated spacer bead.
Round nose pliers, flat nose pliers and wire cutters.

To begin, fold a large length of cord in half, wrap it loosely around your wrist twice to get a rough
measurement and then cut with scissors. For this tutorial, we used a total length of 40 inches but you
may want your bracelet to be smaller or larger (or to wrap around three times instead of twice).
Thread your brass button onto the cord and make sure it sits nicely at the halfway point, so you have
the same amount of cord either side of the button. Thread your needle with beading thread and tie a
secure knot on the cord to the left of the button as show in the photo. Make sure the knot is tight
enough so that it won’t slide around.
The easiest way to make a wrap bracelet is to keep the cords tight while you’re wrapping the beads
around it. You can do this by using a clipboard, if you have one. Simply push the button shank under
the clipboard handle and tape the cord ends down underneath the clipboard.

But if you don’t have a clipboard, you can just use something heavy that won’t damage the button.
We used a bead storage box and placed the button underneath, then taped the ends of the cord to
the table to keep both cords nice and tight.
For the purpose of this tutorial, we’ve labelled the cords A and B so you can follow the instructions in
the next step easily. So cord A is on the left and cord B is on the right.
When you begin wrapping the beads around the cord, your knot will be on cord A, so that’s where
you’ll start. Pick up one bead onto your needle and lay it neatly in the middle of the cords. Go under
and back over cord B and directly back through the bead. Then go under cord A and pick up another
bead ready for wrapping.
Repeat this again, remembering to wrap the bead around the cords the same way every time – under
cord B, over and back through the bead and then under cord A – otherwise the end result will look
messy.
Repeat step 3 by continuing to thread on beads, laying them in the middle of the cords each time
until your bracelet reaches its desired length. You will need to keep testing the length of the bracelet
after a while to make sure you wrap enough beads onto the cords!
Once you’ve finished wrapping your beads onto the cords, tie a secure knot onto one of the cords
next to the last bead you’ve wrapped on. You might want to add a dab of glue onto the knots at
either end of the bracelet if you’re worried about the thread coming loose at all!
Then tie a looped knot with the cord ends as close to the last bead as you can, making sure that the
bead is still sitting nicely in between the cords. Use the button shank to measure how large the
closure needs to be and then tie another knot as shown in this photo. The main part of the double
wrap bracelet is now complete and you can wear it like this or you can follow the next couple of steps
to make a tassel!
Use a small square of cardboard to help you make a tassel. Wrap some embroidery thread around
the cardboard in a vertical direction. Open one of your jump rings and slide it onto the embroidery
thread while it’s wrapped around the cardboard. Close the ring and slide it up to the top of the
thread – this will make a bail for your tassel and you can use this to attach it to a decorative
component in the next step.

Slide the embroidery thread off the cardboard square and tie a thread around the top part of the
tassel to pull the thread in. If you want to, you can cover this thread up with another jump ring, like
we have in this tutorial. Then cut the embroidery thread at the bottom so that there is no join in the
tassel.
Make a decorative component using the eyepin and spacer bead using your pliers and wire cutters.
Then attach one end to your tassel and the other end to the wrap bracelet wherever you’d like it to
be!