Leather Heart Bracelet (Shelter in Place Edition)

Today I am going to show you how I made super cute leather bracelet with things I found in my home without having to go out during shelter in place.

If you don't have these things lying around, then maybe wait until after shelter in place is lifted and it is safe to go to the craft supply store for the things you need. Stay home! Stay safe.

Supplies

Scrap leather (long enough pieces to wrap your wrist)

A fabric measuring tape

A straight edged ruler

A pair of good scissors

A pen and/or Sharpie marker

a leather hole puncher

a snap or closure

embroidery floss or yarn

a needle

Step 1: Measuring

First step after gathering your "ingredients" is you need to make sure you know how long you need to cut your leather.

Take your fabric measuring tape and wrap is as tightly or loosely around your wrist as to what feels comfortable to you. Mine came out at 6.5 inches. You then want to add about an inch on to that for the overlap where the snap/closure will be. I actually did 1.5 inch to be more on the safe side. So I am going to cut an 8 inch strip of my leather for this project.

Step 2: Marking and Cutting

Now that you know what length of leather you need, you will need to flip your leather over so the bottom side is facing up. You don't want to mark on the front because it will show when you are wearing it.

Next, take your ruler and first make a few marks the length of your leather at the width you want it to be. I am going to go with 3/4 inch width for this bracelet so I have some playing room for the design.

Mark a few marks and then take your ruler and your pen or marker and draw a line that crosses all of those marks. Next you will want to find your end marks (mine is 8 inches) and mark the ends where you will need to cut.

NOTE: for darker leather (like the blue you see in my images) you will definitely want to use a permanent marker or even maybe some tailor's chalk. The pen was way too hard to see on it when I was marking.

Then take your scissors and cut the strip out. I did two different colors to see which I liked better. I am going to go ahead and use the silver as the yarn I chose will have a lot more contrast with it.

Step 3: Marking the "Starting Line"

Take your strip of leather and fold it so the two ends are together. Make sure you fold it with the back side of the leather facing out. We are going to use this to mark your center point of the bracelet where your design will start.

Take your marker and mark the center. This is going to be the starting point of your design as we are going to work from the inside out.

Step 4: Marking Up the Design

NOTE: I am doing this all free hand, but if you want your design to be precise, please feel free to break out your ruler and mark your design so the dots match up nicely.

From the center of the bracelet, you will mark the first two dots for the bottom of the first two hearts on either side of the center in the middle of the leather.

Then add two dots about a 1/4 inch up on either side of the first dot. Add two more just above those and in a bit to represent the tops of the heart. The last dot for one heart will go right above the first dot and in between the second two dots.

This is going to be the design for the heart. It is geometric in design.

Now continue to do this on either side of the center point in your bracelet with the hearts facing so the tops of them are towards the ends of the leather.

Start the next heart so the tip of the bottom of the heart is sitting right between the tops of the first heart.

As you can see in this photo, I did three hearts on each side.

Step 5: Punching Out the Holes

This step we will be taking our leather hole punch and punching out the holes for the hearts.

If you have a punch like I have, you want to set it at the smaller diameter hole.

Once you have that set, let's start punching out those holes! Start in the center and work your way out.

I started with just the first two here, that was just for the purpose of the next step.

One thing I did have to do after I started was I need to punch from both sides to get the hole cut completely. I think my punch is a little dull. You may not need to do this yourself, but if you are having problems with the hole not coming out after punching from one side, don't try and rip it out. Try lining the punch up on the other side and punch in the same spot. That seemed to work out good for me.

Step 6: Sewing in the Hearts

For the purpose of this tutorial, I started sewing just the first two hearts. You are more than welcome to punch out all your hearts and then sew, but I found this a little less confusing as the more holes you punch, the more errors you may make.

Let's take our embroidery floss or yarn and get started. I chose some sock yarn I happened to have in my craft room from a previous project. (Believe it or not, it wasn't socks). I cut myself a piece that was about a foot in length. I thread a needle that had a big enough eye to accommodate the yarn.

I started at the bottom hole of one of the hearts. I made sure to leave about 2 inches on the back for tying it closed later on.

Then when you do is just sew around the hearts! After I sewed around them once, I actually when around once more and liked the look of the doubled up yarn. You can do it however you like. I just like the fullness of the doubled up.

Once you have them done, go ahead and tie off the ends of the yarn together. I made sure mine ended in the same (or one hole over) place. I did a triple knot and trimmed off the excess yarn.

Then go ahead and punch out the rest of your heart holes and sew in the rest of your hearts the same way you did here. Feel free to change colors for the other hearts too. I stayed with the same color.

Step 7: The Change Up!

After I went through and punched the heart holes and sewed in two more hearts, I decided I wanted to change the design. I am just doing this kind of on a whim from shelter in place boredom, so I hope you don't hold this against me.

I left off the last two hearts I originally planned and switched over to just having chevrons for the rest of the pattern.

Instead of just marking the holes, I drew them out and then punched at the corner of the chevron and the ends. I did 4 chevrons on either side with the first "nestled" in to the crook of the last heart on each side.

Step 8: Finish Up the Sewing

Then for each side, sew in the chevrons. I also doubled these up. Make sure that when you do start sewing, keep in mind you want the thread to start and stop near each other so you can tie it off.

Once you have those done, you are done with your sewing and your design!

Step 9: Adding the Closure

For this bracelet, I am using an interesting peg style closure I had in my craft supplies. It consists of a screw that the peg fastens to.

So to get this on, all you need to do it punch a hole on one of your bracelet in the same size you will need for the screw. Happily, mine was the same as what we used for the design.

Punch it where you want the peg to be. Mine is about 1/4 inch from the edge of the leathers end. Push the screw through and fasten the peg on top of it. Make sure to twist it tightly so it won't come off as you start to wear your bracelet.

Step 10: Punching/cutting the Final Hole

The very last thing you need to do for this bracelet is making the hole on the opposite end for the closure to hold in to.

I took my hole punch and changed it to the largest size hole. I punch a hole in the opposite end to correspond with where the peg would fit through.

But lo and behold, it was still too small. So I took my scissors and cut 4 tiny slits around the edge of the inside of the punched hole. Now when you push the peg through the hole, it fits and it still stays nice and snug around the shaft of the peg to make it so it won't come undone as easily if the hole was bigger.