T-shirt Bracelet Tutorial
Jun 12, 2010 
5 Comments
Not too long ago I spotted a really great fabric bracelet at a high end store. Since I’m not a big jewelry wearer, I couldn’t bring myself to pay big bucks for a bracelet. However, that bracelet popped into my mind this afternoon and it sparked a recon idea in my head. I just gave it a whirl and while it’s nothing fancy, it’s a fun, quick project that’s perfect for a funky accessory.
The absolute simplicity of this project makes it a great summer project for a teen or pre-teen that’s trying out his or her sewing skills. My 3-year-old daughter is begging me to make her one in ‘prettier colors’ as we speak.
Let’s get started!
Supplies:
Old t-shirts or any old piece of clothing made of knit or other stretchy fabric
Scissors
Sewing machine
So…get your t-shirt.
Cut strips of fabric, making sure the the stretch goes down the length of your strips. You’ll want the bracelet to stretch a bit so you can easily get it on and off.
My wrist is child-like in size and measures just under 7 inches, so I made my strips about 8-8.5 inches long. I made mine too wide to start with and ended up narrowing them to about 1 inch. This is all very approximate. That’s the beauty of the funky little bracelet–the more random and rough it is, the more fun it looks! Despite the yard stick in my photos, I didn’t use it once. Just freehanded the whole thing. Fast and fun!
Now, simply fold the strips in half and sew, using a straight stretch stitch.
Now loosely gather the ends and stitch across them to secure them. There’s no rhyme or reason to how I need this. I just bunched them up and stitched across using a slightly longer stitch length to accommodate the thickness.
To close this bracelet up, you’ll want a wider, shorter strip of fabric that is something like this:
It should be wide enough to cover the end seams on the strips on both ends and long enough to overlap when wrapped loosely around the ends. Like this:
After you’ve stitched one end into the wide strip (should look like photo above), tuck the other end of your bracelet into it and repeat. Easy enough, right? Here’s my bracelet:
To make it more your style, you can mix and match colors, thread on some random large beads, change up thread colors. Just have fun! Grab the kids and bust up that summer boredom!
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I so want one. Great idea.
very cute! i don’t ever buy jewelry, but making something like this would be fun and quick. thanks for sharing the idea!
BTW….I love it.
Oh how pretty! I love that black and red combo. Thanks so much for the how-to, I’ll be linking.
Neat idea! I utilize almost everything, too, it sometimes drives my hubby crazy! His old tube socks get cut open to make wonderful rags for whatever. Once I cut off the top cuffs and kept them, before I cut open the tube, thinking, h-m-m-m-m, this could make a funky bracelet with some cool beads attached…it’ll stretch to whatever size and wash great. I may go make one tommorrow! Maybe I’ll send some pics. BTW, this is a wonderful site!