Braided Bracelets

Hello fellow craftians(yeah..I think I just made that word up...)!!!
I am getting right down to it today!
I saw some cute braided bracelets on Pinterest(I LOVE PINTEREST!!!).
They were sorta plain jane, but cute....
SO I am adding some flair to mine.
Here's a pic of my finished bracelets.

Buttons on the left and beads on the right.

First you will need some T-shirts scraps(you can use ribbon, jute, whatever you have on hand).  I chose grey scraps because that is what I had on hand at the time.  I took 3 and cut them about 4 inches longer than my own wrist.  If you are making these for someone else make sure you measure their wrist and add the 4 inches.

I used two jump rings for the connectors on this particular bracelet, but you can use whatever you wish.  I used an old ring on the one(which is in the first picture).

Now you are going to fold all three strands of your material over the jump ring as shown.  Then you will sew it til it's secured nice and sturdy!

I used nylon thread so it's almost invisible.  But if you want to sew patterns or what not I reccomend embroidery floss.

I decided to sew buttons to one of the gray t shirt strands.  I sewed them in a color sequence, of course when you do it...  It will be your call...  Go CRAZY!!  :D

 One down!

I spaced them out a bit here, because when I braid them I don't want the buttons to be hidden in the braids.

I needed to break up all that dreary grey so I added some ribbon yarn to the mix.

When I braid these together I will be putting the ribbon yard in with one strand of grey so that I have the strands to braid with.

Braid until you have an inch or two left at the end.

 Then sew this end as you did the other(but make sure the fold is on the underside of the bracelet).  I also pushed the nylon thru under the hoop and snipped at the end(no itchy nylon on the skin).

Front side of the finished bracelet.

Back side of the bracelet.  Also you can turn the connectors to hide the openings.

This is the connector on my other bracelet.  It's a hematite ring I found a long time ago.

Front side(or back side) of other bracelet.

I used braided rope in this one and vintage beads from a necklace of my grandmothers.  The nylon braided cord HAS to be melted at the ends before working with it...  Otherwise it completely unravels itself(disaster).

You can pretty much use anything to make these.  Yarn, wire and old necklace chains(will have to be attached differently), nylon braided cord, t shirts, fabric, beads, buttons, charms can be incorporated as well.  The possibilities with these are endless.

I hope you enjoyed this!

If I can do anything to make these easier to understand, or go smoother please let me know.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask!

Also...I apologize for my hideous nails in the pictures.  I didn't realize until after I took the pictures...and reviewed this that looked terrible...lol

Happy crafting!!!

JoJo

P.S.

This is a bracelet I finished today....  It turned out really cute.  I sued the gray t shirt fabric, eggplant purple ribbon, buttons...and for the clasp an old ring and a black jump ring...lol