Rhinestones and Denim Cuff Bracelet

How to make your own denim cuff bracelet

There is nothing worse than getting a hole in your favorite pair of jeans. Don’t throw them out! You can  turn them into a stylish new bracelet!

For this project I used:
A pair of old jeans
Scrap piece of cotton fabric
Scissors (or cutting wheel and mat)
Sewing machine (with jeans needle and yellow thread)
 2 Ribbon clamps
Jewelry pliers
 3 -4 mm silver jump rings
Toggle clasp
White flat back pearls in sizes 34ss and 10ss
Capri Blue rhinestones in sizes 16ss and 12ss
Fern Green 12ss Rhinestones
Gem Tac
Wax tipped tool

Begin by cutting a piece from your jeans 7 inches by 1.5 inches. Cut a piece the same size from the scrap of cotton fabric.

With right sides together using yellow thread, stitch one short end and both long ends together using a ¼ inch seam allowance. Be sure to use a jeans needle. Clip the corners to reduce bulk and then turn the bracelet inside out. Fold under the short side raw edges to the inside and  press with a hot iron. Sew a topstitch around the entire bracelet, ¼ if an inch from the edge.  You might find it helpful to use a jean-a-ma-jig. The jean-a-ma-jig raises the presser foot making it easier to sew through thicker fabrics like denim.

Insert one of the shorter ends of the cuff into a ribbon clamp and using pliers squeeze to clamp. Then do the same for the other end.

Add a 4 mm jump ring to the hole on the ribbon clamp and add the loop part of the toggle clasp. Add 2 jump rings to the other end and add the bar to the toggle clasp.

I choose a flower design with pearls at the center of the flower surrounded by Capri Blue rhinestones. For the large flower, I used a white size 34ss flat back pearl surrounded by 5 – evenly spaced  12ss rhinestone and then 16ss evenly spaced around the 12ss rhinestones. For the smaller flowers, I used 4 10ss flat back white pearls surrounded by 5 evenly spaced 12ss rhinestones. I used the Fern Green 12ss rhinestones in a “wave” between the flowers with a single Fern Green rhinestone placed in the “valley” of the waves.

Using a piece of chalk and a ruler, mark the center of the bracelet and then one inch marks from the center to the edges. These marks will be where you glue the pearls.

Place a drop of Gem Tac slightly smaller than the rhinestones on the bracelet. With the wax tipped tool, pick up a pearl and gently press it into the glue drop. Gently press rhinestone into glue drop allowing glue to cover the edges of the pearl. This prevents the embellishment from peeling off. Continue gluing pearls and rhinestones.

Allow to dry flat for 24 hours.

Super easy and fun! This is a great way to recycle those old jeans.

Rhinestones and wax tipped tool are available from:

www.RhinestonesEtc.com