https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/cant-top-the-can-top-bracelet • Posted by Lauren S.
Every time I wear one of these out in public, I get compliments. "I love your bracelet!" "Is it made of soda can thingies?" "That's so cute!" Some people are surprised that I made them myself--which I find surprising. They're insanely easy. Here's how to make your very own. This is a great project for those who like to use "the whole buffalo" and never throw any scraps away. I'm using scrap from a T-Shirt that I've already cut up to make a dress. (I'll soon post that dress too--my version of Julia V's "Two Color Tee Dress".)
Every time I wear one of these out in public, I get compliments. "I love your bracelet!" "Is it made of soda can thingies?" "That's so cute!" Some people are surprised that I made them myself--which I find surprising. They're insanely easy. Here's how to make your very own. This is a great project for those who like to use "the whole buffalo" and never throw any scraps away. I'm using scrap from a T-Shirt that I've already cut up to make a dress. (I'll soon post that dress too--my version of Julia V's "Two Color Tee Dress".)
Collect your Materials. Pop-tops, and T-shirt scaps. If you're on this site, you probably have the latter already. This will spark the interest of any curious kittens in the vicinity, and you may have to make your bracelet in spite of feline interference. Meet Skittles, everybody.
Determine the direction your fabric stretches, and cut a long strip about 2cm in width (narrower of your fabric is fairly thick) and about 40 cm long. Pull the ends of the strip and stretch it out, so that it rolls up into a nice, stretchy string.
Clean up your pop-tops, and make sure none of them still have that round bit that used to hold them to the can attached.
Extricate your string from your kitten.
To start off, pull the string through the bottom hole in one of the pop tops. We will take this out later, but it will give us a place to start from.
Thread the string through the bottom hole of a second can-top. Line them up so they overlap.
Pull the string down through the top hole in the first can-top as shown. We've now made out first "stitch" This would be terribly confusing without pictures, wouldn't it?.
Get third can-top. Thread the string up through the bottom hole of the third, and the top hole of the second. As I took this picture, Skittles was just out of camera range, pulling on the end of the string. How thoughtful of him, helping me keep my stitches tight!
Make a whole bunch of stitches. Continue adding pop-tops until you've made the bracelet as long as you want. Wrap it around your wrist to test it, if you like. If you wiggle it around too much, it might get attacked, though.
Undo that first stitch on the end we started with, so we can connect the two ends of the bracelet together. Just pull the string out of the bottom end of the first pop-top.
Look at your ends and see of they match up. See how one of my ends has a pop-top on the bottom and the other has one on the top? Make sure yours does too. If it doesn't, add or remove one, so that the ends will fit together. The finished bracelet will still be stretchy, so the fit doesn't have to be perfect.
Fit the ends together. The can-tops on the ends should be in the same configuration as any other two can-tops in the bracelet. Even if the kitten is pulling on one end of the string.
Pull the sting end on from the outside of the bracelet to the inside through the empty holes. You will now have both ends of string passing through the same pop-top.
Cross the ends of the string, and pull each end through the hole that the other one came from. Look at the picture, methinks it is more instructive than my words. Once you've got the string in place, test out the bracelet. Pull out or let in more string to adjust the tension to your taste.
Tie a tight square knot in the sting on the outside of the bracelet.
Trim the ends as short or as long as you like. Enjoy your finished bracelet as much as Skittles enjoys this one. He's decided it's for him.