Festival Fever - The Warm Up: Woven Bracelets

Have you been in the jewellery section of any shop recently?  The tribal fashion trend is everywhere and the amount of rustic bracelets is quite amazing.  These guys (below) are in Top Shop, priced at £8.50 (I think that would be about $13). 

I don't know what the beads are made of, and as pretty as they are, I knew they must be pretty simple and inexpensive to make.  I also wanted to experiment with all of the Spring pastels out there.  So I made these:

 I also made one for the boyfriend, 'manning' it up a bit with some leather and stainless steel beads. (His was clearly more expensive as a result; who knew being a man wasn't cheap!)

 So what do you need?

Per bracelet: 2 x 1m lengths of cotton string, hemp or leather band; beads  and a clasp if you don't want to take the truly hippy route of knotting it to you until it falls off!

Process:

1. Take the two pieces of string and make a loop.  Don't fold the strings in half to do this.  Make one half a lot shorter.  This is the bit that will go around the circumference of your wrist, so now is the time to check it will fit you.  Allow a little extra for the loop.

2. Tie a knot at the loop end.  Make sure you make the loop as small as possible.

  

3a.  Lay the cord out so the two smaller lengths are in the middle.  Take piece A (on the right) and place it under the middle cords.  Let it rest over the top of cord B.

3b. Take cord B (left side) and then place it over the middle cords. Then thread it under cord A.  Pull tight to create your first knot

4.  For the next knot, you reverse the process.  See diagram!

You end up with this pattern.  The raised edge shows you which side was last placed 'under' the centre. 

5.  Add beads onto the centre strands wherever you want them.  Knot around the bead in the same way following the pattern above.  Tip: Sometimes the bead holes are too small for two strands, so use one. It's a bit fiddly, but as long as you keep the loose middle strand tight, you can barely see it's not been used.

6. At the end, use a clasp or a knot to secure the end. 

So, there we go.  Pastels, tribal and colour clashing - three trends dealt with at once!  If you need any extra help, please email me!

Click HERE to win all of the goodies you need to make some of your own woven bracelets!

These bracelets are part of my Festival Fever Warm Up.  So what is that exactly?

It's a series celebrating EVERYTHING outdoors. Inspired by my own plans to attend a Spanish music festival, which I have a pile of craft projects for, I decided that this summer my outdoors was going to be a bit funkier than usual.  So if you have a summer project (maybe a recipe for a picnic or barbecue; a stylish outfit for an outdoor occasion; new accessories; a new outdoor redesign; games or activities), then come back and link up from 23rd April....or EVEN BETTER....email me if you want to guest post, have a product or shop you want me to review...or even if you just want to say hello!

I am excited already!  12craftsofcrimbo (at) gmail (dot) com.

P.P.S. Don't forget to enter the giveaway here!