Hi lovelies! As I promised when I made my DIY Aurelie Bidermann inspired shell necklace, I have some DIYs to do with the remaining shells off of that one shell lei. So we're going to make an Aurelie Bidermann inspired bracelet (which goes great with the necklace!) and a cute little shell bracelet (I made two and always have one on!) {Click for the how-to!}
For the first bracelet, you'll need:
- Elastic beading cord
- little mini-conch shells from lei
- Not shown: scissors
Simply thread the shells through the pre-drilled hole onto a piece of elastic about 8+" long.
When it's long enough to wrap around your wrist without stretching, then you're done!
Tie the ends in a knot, trim the excess, and hide the knot inside a shell. Voila! Couldn't be easier!
Now let's make the Aurelie Bidermann inspired bracelet, shall we? You'll need:
- 6 colors of embroidery thread - variations on 2 colors.
- 1 cowrie shell
- Nail polish (to paint your shell)
- Not shown: clear nail polish, embroidery needle, scissors
Paint your shell, leaving the 'teeth' part bare. Since this requires doing one side, allowing time to dry, and then doing the other side and allowing it to dry, work on the bracelet in the downtime!
Cut three strands of each color, about a foot long. Keep one pile of two of each color strands, and one pile of one of each color strands.
The bracelet will be made of the 12 strand pile, so lay that vertically. Now take the 6 strand pile and lay it centered under the 12 strand pile horizontally. The exact placement doesn't exactly matter; we will be creating the cobra stitch with this and it can slide into its proper placement when it's all done.
Start cobra stitching! It's just tying a simple knot over and over again. Start from the left, go under the middle and over the right. Then take the right, go over the middle and under and through the loop created from the left, all as shown above. Pull tightly, then do it starting from the right. Go under the middle and over the left. Then take the left, go over the middle and under and through the loop created from the right. Pull tightly, and repeat until you run out of room.
Slide the cobra stitch casing into the middle of the strands.
Trim the ends, and seal them into place (and prevent fraying!) by lightly coating them with some clear nail polish.
Now let's finish off the bracelet! Knot the ends, and trim them so they're short and even.
Take a piece of floss about 6 inches long, thread it into your embroidery needle, and use it to get the thread (halfway through!) connected to the middle bottom of the bracelet, as shown above.
Now thread the shell onto the bottom excess of thread.
Tie both ends into a knot, trim the excess and secure with clear nail polish.
That's all! Couldn't be easier!
Wear them together, wear them alone, or stack on lots of other bracelets! I love the many different ways you can do the thread bracelet; you could add a clasp, use more (or less!) thread, change up the colors, do more cobra stitching, add more shells, etc!
xo
Lia
