Leather and Chain Bracelet Tutorial

Jul 28, 2012 by Kirsten

Greetings everyone,

I have been enjoying time with my extended family lately. Since many of my family members like crafting I put together a new bracelet tutorial to provide us with some simple and creative entertainment. This post contains a step-by-step leather and chain bracelet tutorial that will teach you how to make an elegant stacked bracelet. These lovely bracelets can be worn either by children or by adults, and the design can span the spectrum of elegant to funky, based on the materials used!

I prefer to wear 1 to 3 bracelets at a time. And in the image below I am wearing 2 types of bracelets that I made while crafting with my family. The inside and outside bracelets are the leather and chain bracelets.

I discovered the pattern for this wonderful bracelet while looking for leather cording for another project. I was impressed by the great materials and the interesting construction techniques used to make this bracelet. I just had to make these bracelets! I have changed the closure a bit, adding an antique button in my version of the pattern. You can find the original tutorial on the Ornamentea website at Everyday Wrapped Bracelet. Ornamentea is also the perfect place to get all of your materials for this project, except for the antique buttons. If you want to use antique buttons for the closure then eBay is a great place to find some unique offerings.

In truth, after I put the tutorial for this pattern together, I decided to share my new discovery and offer a hands on class that walked students through the creation of these bracelets. My first ever class went smoothly and we all had a great time. Even the novice crafters in the class finished the class with fully finished bracelets. Everyone agreed that the pattern was much easier than they imagined. So please give the tutorial a try at home!

Making this bracelet is a lot of fun if you are alone or in a group of friends or family. I hope you enjoy this pattern as much as we did!

Supplies (per bracelet):

18 inches of 1.5mm diameter leather cord (sorry for the mixed units!)
6 inches of ball chain or 2.5mm Swarovski chain
34 inches of Irish waxed linen cord
1 antique button

Instructions:

1. Cut an 18 inch piece of leather cord. Thread your button onto the leather cord and fold the cord in half. Let the button fall to the fold, meaning that the button should sit where you folded the leather cord.

2. Cut a 34 inch piece of linen cord. Approximately 1 inch from one end of the linen cord, fold the cord back on itself. Line the linen and leather up together. When you do this, you want the fold in the linen to be placed about a half an inch away from the fold in the leather, and the folds should be facing in opposite directions. The 1 inch portion of the folded linen should then stick out around a half an inch beyond the button as in the photo below. Starting just below the button, wrap the long end of the linen around the linen loop.

3. After you have completed 4 full wraps, thread the long end of the linen through the folded linen loop made in step 2. Gently pull the long end of the linen to line up with the long end of the leather. Then pull the short end of the linen until the loop has closed tightly, as if you were tying a knot. At this point your bracelet should look like the picture below.

4. Place the ball chain or Swarovski chain on top of the two leather straps. Wrap the linen around the leather and in between the crystals on the chain.

5. Continue wrapping the linen around the chain and leather until you get to the end of the chain. Secure the linen by making 4 overhand knots around the leather cord. In the picture below I am in the process of making my second or third knot, and you can see how I went about tying the knots. When you are done with the fourth knot, line the knots up in a row so that the knots look orderly and neat. You want these knots to look like the knot at the other end of the bracelet, made in step 3.

6. Wrap the linen tail that remains after tying the four overhand knots around just one of the leather strands. Holding both pieces of leather and the linen cord, tie an overhand knot. This knot should be placed so that your button can tightly pass through the space between this knot and the linen wraps at the end of the chain. See the image below to see what I mean.