Getting All Girly with OOAK Cuff Bracelets

four of our OOAK bracelets

linen feather and french veiling pillbox hat- my millinery hobby

I admit it. I’m a push-over for My Fair Lady hats. That Audrey could really carry off any kind of hat. For just a short while, it seemed ladies on this side of the ‘pond’ were poised to start wearing dress hats again, so I launched into millinery as a hobby a few years ago. Sadly, the fad soon ended north of the Mason Dixon, and what a pity as we all look glam in the right hat. Hand sewing bracelets became a way for me to use accumulated bits, baubles and fabric. Bracelets are so versatile that most ladies (and even some lads) wear bracelets to finish their outfits.

Most commercially available bracelets don’t fit my wrist so I seldom wear them. My hands are rather skinny which is great for washing canning jars but not so great for wearing bracelets. I once lost a bracelet on a crowded bus in Europe. There was standing room only and when I switched hands on the handrail, my bracelet slipped off and rolled away never to be reclaimed. Now I can make custom sized bracelets in infinite designs.

Youtube provides many tutorials on making charm, memory wire and stretch magic bracelets which are really fun, fast and cinchy. However, I haven’t found any tutorials demonstrating fabric covered cuff bracelets the way I make them. The first fabric covered cuff bracelets I made had heavy millinery wire frames for the base.

my 1st bracelet – made with millinery wire base and decorated with antique buttons

I still make this framework for certain types of bracelets as it works great for custom sizing. Most of the cuff bracelets I now make have aluminum bases. Some I shaped from flat aluminum and some are pre-formed.

cuff bracelet aluminum base and felt under covering

Usually I stitch craft felt to both sides before covering with a fashion fabric or pleather. The felt covering adds little weight to the finished product. The bracelets are so comfortable and do not clank or jingle like metal bracelets.