Braided Suede Shoelace Bracelet

When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. But, what exactly do you make when life hands you suede shoelaces? I suppose that just makes it slightly more complicated :) Luckily there is a solution for problems like that, and this braided bracelet is the perfect example of such a solution.

In this instructable I will show you how I created this fun-looking braided bracelet using quite simple materials. The roughness of the shoelaces gives a really unique look and feeling to it, but of course you can also use the techniques shown here combined with other materials.

I'm really happy with how this bracelet turned out, I hope you'll like it as well!

To make your own braided bracelet, you will need:

- (shoe) laces

- yarn

- scissors

- glue

- beads

First things first, although this might sound a bit unimportant, it can definitely make your end result look so much better: matching the colour of the lace with the colour of your yarn. Since the laces I had were light brown, I decided to go with this particular colour blue, it doesn't really show up that well in the picture though, it's a bit lighter and slightly less blue.

Start by taking one of the shoelaces. Fold it in half and cut it exactly in the middle to create two even parts. The cutting takes a bit of trial and error, the suede lace is a bit tricky to cut without the cut side fraying. Repeat this with the other lace.

Take three of the laces and align them. Also cut off a long piece of your yarn and find the center. You could mark it, but if you just keep it folded until you use it, it should be fine

Place the center of your yarn under the middle lace, just about a centimeter from the beginning of the lace. Knot the ends together to secure the yarn on the lace. Make sure the knot is as flat as possible. Next, place the other two lace next to the middle one again and make sure the yarn is on top of the laces.

Carefully flip the laces around and apply glue to the area around the yarn. Once you've added the glue, you can start wrapping the yarn around the laces. Wrap one end on one side of the knot and the other end on the other side.

After a total of about six to eight wraps (you could do more or less if you prefer of course), knot the ends together. Tie a second knot on top to secure the first one. Apply glue to the knot and its surrounding areas to make sure it's staying on.

When braiding the laces, there is one thing that is really important: always keep the same side of the lace facing up. I personally think this creates a really nice looking braid (basically the difference between this and this). If you are not sure how to do a basic braid, you can just follow the pictures or if they aren't clear enough leave a question in the comments.

Ending the braid is quite similar to starting it. First of all, you will need to check if your braid is long enough or not. If it's not long enough, just keep braiding, if it is too long, unbraid the last bit. Once you've got the right length, align the laces right next to each other as in the beginning.

Again, take a piece of yarn, knot the center around the middle lace, apply glue, wrap the yarn and double knot to secure the end. A final bit of glue and your braid is completely secured.

These are a few different views of the bracelet so far, just to give you an idea of what you should have right now.

Since the bracelet is totally straight and the lace isn't as easily shapeable as yarn for example, it can be quite helpful to knot it around a circular object first, I just used the base of the glue I used.

To make it possible to wear your bracelet, make a loop on one of the sides as shown and secure it with a knot around the base of the loop. Cut off the ends and apply a generous amount of glue to secure the yarn.

For the other side: take your two beads and knot them to the ends of the yarn, leaving about five to ten centimeter between the bracelet and the beads for closing the bracelet.

And then your bracelet is finished!

I really hope you liked this instructable, if you did I'd love to know :) Also, if you made your own version of this project, be sure to share it in the comments!