Tutorial: Personalised adjustable leather bracelets

Regulars to the blog may remember the personalised bead bracelets I made for all the little girls who are attending the wedding, I'm going to put these in their activity bags as a little thank you present. But possibly a bit girlie for the boys and I didn't want them to feel left out so I came up with these:

It took a while to find the right beads but the boys version is finally complete, and I've made all nine this afternoon. For health and safety reason I have only made bracelets for the boys who are over 2 years old, although I'm sure rules on such things would suggest they aren't suitable for under 3s due to the small parts (beads), and I should also mention that small children should not be left alone with items with small parts. There, that's the H&S out of the way, now on to the tutorial.

What you need

Leather thong (we've used dark purple)

Alphabet beads with a large hole (3mm min)

Silver beads with large hole (mine were 4mm)

Scissors

1. Seek out Alphabet beads to spell the name you want on the bracelet, two silver beads and a length of leather thong approximately 12inches for this child bracelet, more for an adult.

2. Thread your beads onto the leather thong, making sure all the letters are facing the right way.

3. Take one of the ends of the leather cord, loop it around and feed it back through the whole set of beads.

4. Now time to tie the knots, I have to admit I'm not quite sure what this knot is called (possibly an overhand?) but basically you loop the cut end around itself and the other strand and feed it back through itself. Repeat at the other side.

5. Test the knots by sliding the knot forward and back on the main 'loop' of leather. Once happy tug the knots as tight as you can to keep them secure and then cut the excess cord (I left 1mm in case of knot slippage)

And there you have a finished bracelet, ready to wear and adjustable as the recipient grows.