How to make a fabric bracelet - upcycled from a jeans waistband

I sew and upcycle a lot, especially from old jeans and I wanted to find something that our girls could upcycle and sew for themselves and get a bit creative.

These bracelets are super simple and allow for plenty of decoration and creativity!

Here's how to make a fabric bracelet from a jeans waistband:

First of all cut the waistband from an old pair of jeans.

Unpick the belt loops and remove.

Fasten the button on the waistband and wrap it around your wrist for size. Remember to overlap the two pieces!

Cut the waistband the size you would like and lay if flat.

Then unfasten the button and overlap the two raw edges where you just cut and pin together.

Stitch using a zig zig stitch for strength in a box shape where the two pieces overlap. Use a denim or larger needle on your machine for this as the layers are quite thick. You could also hand stitch this if you don't have a sewing machine!

And that is your basic fabric bracelet finished!

Now comes the fun part - adding the embellishments.

For this one I added a fabric flower - just simple circles of varying sizes cut from denim and other scrap fabric. 

Place the circles on top of each other and stitch through the centre with a button to hold in place. Then snip around each circle to make the 'petals'.

Then scrunch the flower up and roll between your hands to make it look more like a flower!

And stitch it to the bracelet - hiding your previous stitching!

One finished flower fabric bracelet!

You can embellish these bracelets with anything you choose.

My girls chose beads, an old kids plastic necklace and some ribbon. They are all just hand stitched into place in designs they chose.

I want our girls to learn to create with upcycled materials, and these bracelets are simple enough for them to make by themselves, and flexible enough to make them with endless different designs!

What have you or your kids created with upcycled materials? Maybe you have an old pair of jeans you could try one of these bracelets with?

Chip packet bracelet

Have you ever made a bracelet like this before?  I hadn't but had fun trying it out with my girls at the weekend.

Just now, we're being extra careful and learning about what we can recycle, reuse and not put in landfill.  Chip packets were one thing that as yet we haven't found anywhere to take them for recycling here, so we looked for something we could upcycle them to instead.

Using this tutorial we cut up the chip packets we had and folded them into the mini chain links, tucking them together to make this cute shiny bracelet.

The girls decided to give this bracelet to their friend who loves crafting herself.  She was really happy to get the gift, and the next day sent them a picture of another bracelet she'd made the same way (we showed her how).

Not a bad way to use up those shiny chip packets.  You could make a whole set of jewellery with them, or bags...
So many possibilities! 

Have you ever done this kind of weaving with chip packets or junk mail - or anything else for that matter. I'd love some more ideas and inspiration for this!