Every once in a great while I make something and I just want to throw a parade in it's honor. You know what I mean. Right now this is my something. A leather bangle with cotton tassels. Really, it doesn't need a parade, it is a parade!
You can have a parade too, in one of two ways:
- Follow the tutorial after the page break to make your own, or
- Pin it on Pinterest before Monday August 13, 2012 to be entered in a drawing to win one.
Tasseled Boho Bangle Bracelet
- leather band, 1/2" x 9" –I cut mine from one of those scrap bags you can get in the leather-craft section of hobby stores.
- scissors
- business card
- needle with a large eye
- skein of crochet cotton
- fray check, or clear nail polish
- measuring tape or ruler
- awl or leather punch
- pencil
Make 8 tassels as follows: Wrap crochet cotton around the short side of a business card 20 times. The yarn should be neither loose, nor curling the cardstock. Clip one side of the wrap so you have 20 individual yarns for your tassel.
Cut a 12" piece of yarn and use it to tie the yarns together at the middle. Fold them in half, and leaving one end of your 12" piece in with the other yarns, wrap the tail of your 6" piece around all the yarns about 5 times.
Use a needle to tuck the end behind your wrap and into the body of the tassel. Clip ends to even them up.
On the wrong side of the leather strap, draw a light line down the center of the length of leather. Mark where your holes will be along this line: a hole 1/4" from each end, and 15 holes evenly distributed between. On mine the holes are just a hair over 1/2" apart. To do this, make a mark at the center of the length of leather. Mark again halfway between the 1/4" marks and the center. Continue to mark halfway between each dot until you have a total of 17 hash marks on your line. Use your awl or leather punch to make all the holes.
Cut a length of cotton about 32" long. One side (A) will run flat along the right side of the leather. The second yarn (B) will be coming from the wrong side. Thread the needle and go from right side to wrong side into the first hole. Pull the yarn halfway through.
Bring your needle up through the second hole to one side of yarn A, catch through the top of your first tassel, and return through the same hole on the other side of yarn A. Pull snug. Both the tassel and yarn A should be caught with yarn B, and the two yarns will interlock within the hole in the leather.
Bring your needle with yarn B up and down through the next hole, this time catching only yarn A without adding a tassel. Repeat until all 8 tassels are sewn on.
Rethread the needle onto yarn A. Overlap the ends of the strap. With the needle bring the loose end of yarn A through the overlapped holes of the strap and knot them tightly with the end of yarn B.
Weave tail A in and out of the overlapped holes in a figure 8 at least twice to secure the strap. Knot A to B again, and cut the ends a scant 1/4" from the knot. Use fray check or clear nail polish to set the knot.
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