DIY { Rhinestone Friendship Cuff }

Admittedly, I am not much of a crafts person. I don't have the patience - one little thing goes wrong, I get frustrated, toss the project aside, and may come back to it later.

But I wanted a sparkly cuff, and so I thought I'd give it a go.

What you'll need:



-- friendship bracelets (a selection of three to six, depending on how large you want your cuff to be, in any colors). You can make your own (great tutorial here)
-- sparkly bits (I used an extra long vintage rhinestone necklace that was broken)
-- leather or suede pieces (this is for the backing, and they can be bought at any crafts store, like JoAnn)
-- felt
-- invisible thread
-- a sewing needle
-- fabric glue

Step One: Cut a piece of the felt - about a 6" x 6" piece, though the size may vary depending on the length and width of your friendship bracelets. The felt will be the base for your cuff.

Step Two: Choose the order you want your friendship bracelets to go in, and place one on the felt. Cut a length of the invisible thread, and thread your needle. I like to double the thread through and then knot at the ends.



Step Three: Begin stitching the bracelet to the felt. The stitches can be messy on the bottom - because they'll end up covered up - but should be pretty close together on the topside. You want the bracelet to be tightly bound to the felt, and once you begin adding bracelets, you can make stitches from one bracelet to another that will help with this.



Sewing the bracelets to the felt is a little time consuming because of the invisible thread. Unlike normal thread, when this gets tangled or a stitch goes awry, you can't see the thread to easily fix it. I didn't end up throwing things at any point, but was tempted....

Step Four: Trim off any extra felt on the ends and sides. Be sure not to cut any of your invisible stitches!

Step Five: Once you have all of your bracelets stitched to the felt, it's time for sparkle!! I placed the lengths of rhinestone running in the same direction as the bracelets, and then stitched the rhinestone to the bracelets. You could add a few drops of glue beneath your sparkly bits for extra adhesion.



Step Six: Flip the cuff upside down and cut your piece of leather/suede to fit over the back. You'll want the smooth side (the nice part) to be facing up, so that you'll feel it on your wrist when you wear the cuff. Break out the glue! Make some lines of glue on the back of the cuff itself, and then run a line around the piece of leather/suede. Press the suede to the cuff - make sure it's pressed firmly.



Step Seven: Wait. That glue has to dry!

Step Eight: Here's another place where you've got some leeway. I wrapped the ends of all of my friendship bracelets together with a colorful piece of thread. You could actually add snaps, leave the ends as is, or attached another kind of closure altogether.



Step Nine: Nothing. You're done! Enjoy wearing your sparkly friendship cuff!