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I'm really excited today to get to show you this Sleek bracelet that I created, that I
designed, it's a very soft, supple bracelet that you can see that it just kinda folds
down into nothingness, so it's very lightweight to wear and it just feels so good. Everybody
when they wear it they tend to pet it which is kind of fun. So this is gonna be using our
square stitch and then we're also gonna create a little *** tube toggle for the closure
on this. And let's get going on that shall we? I wanna give you guys a couple of tips
on needle threading, because I know that that can always be an issue for people if you're
using Fireline which is what I recommend to do my beadweaving with, you have to kind of
blunt the tip to get it to go through the end of your needle. Fireline has a bit of
a rounded profile to it so you can just take your fingernail and rub it on the end there
and at that point you will be able to better thread your needle. The other thing that you
want to do when you're threading your needle is make sure that you have just a very small
bit of thread showing there, the smaller that tip is, the better off you're going to be,
and then the last tip that I have for you is think of yourself as taking the needle
to the thread instead of the thread to the needle. And for some reason that motion makes
it a little bit easier and faster to thread your needle. So once you have your needle
threaded, we're going to start working on the square stitch base, here I've already
started out a base, I'm using slightly bigger beads than you would in the project pattern,
so you'll wanna refer to the pattern for the exact size beads that you need. Here I need
to use larger beads so that you can see them on the video camera. But I've created a base
here, of square stitch, you'll want to refer to my previous tutorials, the flat square
stitch technique tutorial for instructions on how to do flat square stitch and that will
get you going. I'm started out already here and on the next row when I do my square stitch
I'm gonna be adding in both an accent color bead and a bugle bead. To start out we're
going to do the very first stitch with just a single outline color, outline color is what
I tend to call this color, and just like normal, you'll go back through that bead that you
just added now on the next segment that I'm going to add here, I'm going to add a bugle
bead, and the bugle bead is going to take up the space of several beads on the previous
row. So we'll only do one bugle bead, in this case, for 3 beads on the previous row. Because
these are larger beads, you'll want to refer to your instructions for the project that
you're making to make sure that your using the same bugle bead to previous beads ratio.
So you'll pick up 1 bugle bead, and then also 1 outline color bead, we're skipping in this
case 3 beads for that bugle bead, and then you're gonna stitch through the 4th free bead
there, and we'll stitch just the outline color in. So now that's jumped into alignment perfectly
there, and we'll pass through just the outline color bead. We need to create the center accent
color section, so at this point the accent colors are not stitched in, they actually
just sit loose, it's one of the things that makes this project very supple, so in this
case, I'm just going to pick 6 of these accent colors, those are not stitched in so that
means that I need to pick up 1 outline color also we'll skip the 6 on the base, and stitch
into the 7th where that outline color will get stitched in. And you're only stitching
that outline color. So now these are all loose, and not connected, and the bugle bead is loose.
Now we're at our very last section, that we're going to do here, we're picking up a bugle
bead and our last outline bead, we can stitch in just that outline bead,
*voila* And then just like you do with any normal square stitch, you'll have to go back and reinforce those
2 rows. Now because in this particular case I'm using the larger beads I may have to do
it in more than 1 pass, I don't think I can get my needle all the way across reliably,
so it's totally fine if you can only get through some of the beads at a time, and that's what
I'm doing here. (catch those last 4) And then now we'll go back through the row that we
just added, to reinforce that, flip our piece, and we're going to do the exact same thing
again. The way we create this, we're going to be creating increases as we go along, but
what you'll do is you're going to have 3 rows where you're going to have the 6 accent colors
in the center there, so once you get to the 3 row point with these, then I'm going to
come back and we're going to show you how you're going to do the increases.
Now that you've got this all figured out about adding the accent beads and the bugle beads I'm going
to throw a little curve ball at you. We're going to start adding additional accent beads
in each set of 3 rows as we go along. it's going to create this nice soft V effect, increasing
outward, and gives a really sculpted look to the bracelet. So let's take a look at the
beads Here I have gone ahead and finished up my 3 rows, where I added just the 6 beads
of accent color in the center when I go to do the next row, everything is going to be
the same. We're going to start out with that outside color bead, we're going to do our
bugle bead, (hello Mr. Bugle) and an outside color bead, and then this time when I pick
up beads for the accent section I'm going to pick up 7 beads instead of 6,
and then I still pick up a single outline color here as I do the stitch, and pass through that
outline color. Now you're noticing that it's kind of bowing out, because it's obvious there's
a whole extra bead in there, like that, what you can do to kind of help adjust this as
you go along is, I do a little wiggle, you gotta give it a little wiggle, and I'm kind
of pulling outward giving it a little more room as it goes along, this will suck up as
we add more rows, so don't worry about it too much, but periodically that's my making
room, kind of motion is just giving it the little wiggle with the little outward pull.
Then we will go ahead and finish this row with a bugle bead and an outline color bead,
and then you would just go back and do your reinforcing of these 2 rows. So from here
on out what you're going to do is you'll do another 2 rows with 7 beads of accent color,
then you'll do 3 rows with 8 beads of accent color, and you'll continue adding 1 extra
accent color bead for each 3 rows until you get to the number that is referenced in your
pattern. And that will give you something that looks like this. And once you get to
the point where you have gotten to that maximum number at the center point, then come back
to me and we will talk about sizing, because sizing will be important in the next step.
It's important for us to talk about sizing with this bracelet because you're going to
make the adjustments to your sizing in the middle section of it, so you kinda need to
know what's going on with that. If you don't already know what your bracelet size is, many
people do already, but if you don't, here's how you would figure that out, you take a
tape measure and you place it around your wrist and come up with that number, in my
particular case, come on here buster, my particular case that works out to about 7 inches, so
once you get that 7 inch mark, then you will need to add some for ease and that means how
you like that bracelet to fit on your wrist, I like my bracelets to be a little on the
loose side, so I usually add about an inch to my wrist measurement so that means that
I generally wear an 8 inch bracelet. If you like to wear your bracelets a little closer,
some people like them a little more snug, you might only wanna add a half inch or 3/4
of an inch to your actual wrist measurement to get your bracelet measurement. So you wanna
write that down, what your bracelet measurement is and then let me show you what's going on
with how this bracelet is constructed, I've broken a bracelet down into 3 different portions
here, just so that you can see how it's all gonna come together, what you've already done
is this portion of the increase, and then we're going to create a section across the
center where we use the same number of beads along that center. So that it's flat and straight,
and then we're going to do a decrease section, where we decrease the same way we increased
over here, then we'll add that clasp on either end. So what that means is that these 2 pieces
are always going to be the same length, and it's going to be a defined length because
it's based on how many rows you've done, and I know that because I wrote that into the
pattern. In your case, in the pattern for the Sleek bracelet these will be 2 1/4 inches
each, 2 1/4 inch here and 2 1/4 inch here. Your clasp will add about an inch to the length
of the bracelet, so when you take all of that into account 5 1/2 inches of your bracelet
is already accounted for, that means this center section needs to be whatever the remainder
is. So in my case, since I use an 8 inch bracelet, I would take 8 inches subtract the 5.5 inches
of my 2 sides and my clasp and that means 2 1/2 inches is what this center section should
measure. Now of course you're not going to make it in 3 pieces like this, although you
could, but that's not how we're going to make it. You'll make the increase section then
you will continue with that same number of Delicas as that last row in your increase
section, and do the center portion that we just calculated, for that many rows, at which
point we'll start doing the decreases and that's what I'm going to talk about in the
next segment is how to do those decreases.
Once you get to the decrease section you're going to find it super easy, you're going to just be doing the identical thing that
you did on the increase section but this time you're subtracting 1 of those accent beads
every time you finish 3 rows, and you will do that all the way down, until you have finished
3 rows with 6 accent beads in the center. And that's where I am on this piece here,
I have decreased down until I have done the last 3 rows with 6 accent beads in the center
here, I also want to point out to you that these rows, there might be a little bit of
wonky-ness in how they're laying, some people actually, and that's fine to have some of
that wonky-ness, but some people find that they're better at the increase section or
at the decrease section, and they prefer to do only increases or decreases, and that's
no problem because what you can actually do is create 2 stand alone increase sections
or 2 stand alone decrease sections and then join them together with that center section
like I showed you before, when we were talking about the measuring. So that's an option for
you if you would prefer to make it in sections and then bead those sections together, But
here is where I've done it all in one piece, and I have now finished my last decrease section.
We have to create the 2 rows of the outline color only on this other end so that it will
mirror the first end, and to do that, the first row of this 2 row outline color only
section is a little bit different. Because, you're going to pick up your first color like
normal, your first bead, Now we can't bead 3 individual beads to this 1 bugle bead because
there's no place for that thread to go, so what we'll have to do is bead the 3 beads
in as a section, so I'm picking up 3 beads, and then I'll pass through that bugle bead,
and then pass through the 3 beads that I just added as a unit. And I betchya I could see
this a whole lot better if I put my little reading glasses on. Oh, now they're all focus!
Ok, so then here we have a single bead, we're able to go ahead and stitch that single bead
in, and that's that outline color. And then once you get to the this accent color section,
you have a choice, you can either each one of these outline colors to these accent colors,
but what I prefer to do on this particular segment is just go ahead and pick up your
6 outline colors (4, 5, and 6) and then I'm going to pick up 1 more like I would if I
had just picked up accent colors, so we'll only attach this outside edge one.
Here we're at a bugle bead again so we'll pick up 3 to match the bugle bead plus a single for the
outside bead so it'd be 4 total and we'll just stitch that outside bead in.
Still do your reinforcing of the 2 rows like you normally would,
and if you're really lucky, you get to get it all in one fell swoop, one needle pass, looking on the back side to make sure that I don't have any thread showing
as I do that. And then we'll pass through the new row that I just added
Ok, then for the very last row on this one we're just going to go ahead and attach this last row one bead
at a time, like you did at the very start with your square stitch.
And you'll keep going and complete that row, once you finish that we're going to come back one more time and
we're going to talk about your clasp.
You are so close to a finished bracelet at this point, all we have to worry about is the clasp. And the way I do a clasp on this particular
bracelet is I like to use a beaded closure, I think that it creates kind of a seamlined
effect, you know, when it's all the same colors and the same beads and you don't notice the
clasp nearly as much and I use a *** tube toggle on this, you're going to want to refer
to the *** tube toggle technique tutorial that I have posted previously, if you don't
already know how to make one of those, But let's talk about how you're actually going
to attach it to the bracelet. Here I have created basically what I'm calling a Barbie
bracelet, this is a slightly smaller scale version, you can see that this isn't gonna
fit anybody except Barbie. But it has all the different pieces and parts in it, you've
got the increase, we've got the center section and then we've got the decrease, finished
off those last 2 rows there. I've already got a *** tube toggle, this one is made
out of slightly larger beads than the sample is but everything that I'm going to show you
is the same exact techniques so there's really no reason worry about that. When you've finished
off by reinforcing those last 2 rows, it has you coming out the end bead here, and what
we wanna do is be coming out one of these more centered beads to attach our toggle bar,
so what you'll have to do is you'll have to jog over there. I'm going to go through a
couple of beads here, on the previous row, and one of the things about square stitch
is that because you're reinforcing all those rows, you end up adding a lot of thread through
the center of these beads. And the beads can get kind of clogged up with thread, if necessary,
you can use a flat nose pliers to pull your needle through the beads if it starts getting
super tight there and you start having issues, in this case, because I'm demonstrating on
larger than normal beads, I'm actually being able to get through there quite easily but
generally you're going to start seeing some problems getting your needle and thread through
these outside edges beads, Once you get to the proper location you'll wanna refer to
the directions in your tutorial for the exact location, this sample is not exactly the same
size of the sample that you'll make from the tutorial. But once you get to that spot on
that first row, you're gonna pick up 4 more of your outline color beads, I like to make
the clasp all the same color, again because I just think that you don't notice it nearly
as much, but you know what? That's a design decision and if you wanted to use your accent
color beads for your closure that's no problem either. This is just a simple design element.
So I picked up 4 beads, then what you're going to do is you're going to get your toggle bar,
and you're going to eyeball it and you're going to find 2 beads on the diagonal that
are centered in your toggle bar, and generally I'm able to just eyeball it and kind of see
where that is, if you are having trouble getting your needle through 2 beads here on the diagonal,
you can actually just kinda twirl it, find the next 2 beads on the diagonal there on
the center. I will sometimes go through and find which one my needle and thread goes through
the easiest, because I'm going to want to be able to come back through here and reinforce
this clasp area again. So I want to make sure that I can get that through nice and easy.
After I've attached that bar, we're going to pick up another 4 of your outline color
beads and then you're going to bring it right back in to that first row on your bracelet,
So I came out on one side, and I'm going back in on the other side. So that this will be
centered on your bracelet end. And that's what it looks like when you bring it all in,
when you tighten everything up. Your clasp is an area that gets a lot of wear and tear
on any bracelet and most times when you have a failure of your thread it tends to be in
the clasp area because it just gets knocked around the most which is why I recommend that
you follow this thread path and reinforce it at least 2 more times. My rule of thumb
is I want 3 passes of thread through any closure area. So to reinforce you're simply going
to pass through all those beads again and just not add anything new except that thread.
So up through the 4, through the 2 on the diagonal in the toggle bar, down the 4 over here,
across the center to get to the other side,
Make sure you're not catching your thread on anything, and then you'll do that one more time and then you're able to finish off this
thread. On the other side, you're going to have to create the loop, so I always add my
toggle bar first because you're going to have to measure the loop, to make sure that it
will go over your toggle bar, in this case of course I've got the gigantisaurus toggle
bar. But on the other end, here on this piece I've already got a thread attached so I'm
going to use that and just pretend, on your toggle end, you're again going to pick up
4, coming out in the same place on that last row, you're picking up 4 of your outline color
beads, and then you're going to pick up enough beads for the loop. And in your pattern I
tell you how many beads is as a guesstimate, the reason I say that's a guesstimate is because
not all beads are created equal, even if they're the same size beads, you tend to have those
ones that are a little bit skinnier or a little bit fatter, you know how that goes, and so
it can affect the sizing of your loop. So I'm going to show you how you're going to
test the sizing of your loop. In this case, I don't really know how many I need so I'm
just going to kind of pick up what I know is probably going to be too few, but I'll
show you how I'm going to know that in a second. You're going to go back to that 4th bead from
the beginning, and you're going to pass through it again, in the opposite direction so back
towards the bracelet, and if you need to you can separate it all out,
which, once you've come back through gives you an approximation of what your final loop is going to be. And
this is the point at which you can take your toggle bar and make sure that it goes through
nicely, and like I said, because this is Gigantisaurus it's not going to, but in your pattern I give
you the exact number that I used, your mileage may vary, your beads may need an extra 1 or
2 beads or you may find that it's a little too loose and you may have to take off 1 or
2 beads so that number that I give you in your pattern is just for a starting place.
Once you have assured yourself that this loop is the right size, then we're going to go
ahead and finish off that other leg, so now I'm going to pick up just 3 beads, for this
leg, we'll pass through the adjacent spot on the opposite side,
and now we've got that little V shape going on. And just like I did with the toggle bar section, I suggest that
you reinforce this whole pathway at least 2 more times and then end off your thread.
At which point, you will have your finished bracelet, and that will include your toggle
closure which will fit perfectly like so. Ok now here's the thing: what if you get the
bracelet all made, you've finished your clasp, you go to try it on, and Oh no, it's a couple
of rows too small, or it's a couple of rows too big? here's one of the things that I really
love about square stitch, we are going to be able to adjust that sizing, after the bracelet
is completely made very easily. And this is an unusual thing, most stitches you can't
do this, but we're just going to pretend that the other loop end is on here, and what I'm
going to do is, say this is a little bit too big and I want to remove a couple of rows,
I'm going to make sure that I'm in that center section, you know the section where we just
kept the same number as we went along when we were doing our sizing, and I can literally
just cut this bracelet apart and it will not fall apart. This is the part of the demonstration
where pretty much falls over and gasps, when I cut this thing apart, but look, I'm tugging
on this and it's not coming apart at all, the reason it's not coming apart at all, there's
a couple little threads to pull out, extra threads, that are kind of tucking out, but
other than that it's not coming apart. And the reason you can do this is because we reinforced
from both sides on square stitch, so that's one of the benefits to square stitch, Once
I've cut the bracelet into pieces you can go ahead and remove or add whatever you need
to get your sizing correct so if this bracelet had been too small, what I could do is add
several rows at this point, just the way we did previously, and then we would join the
2 pieces together, If what you need is to remove rows because your bracelet was a little
bit too big, what you can do is simply cut out however many rows you need to remove,
get rid of any of those extra little threads going on that are kinda poking out, and then
here is how you're going to put these pieces back together. It's really very simple because
it's identically what you've been doing the only difference is when you pick up a new
bead, it's one that's already attached to another segment. So here I've got my thread
coming out of the first section (is what I'm trying to say) and I pass through that outside
color bead on that other segment, I'm going to go through the outside color bead on the
first side, then when I go to pick up the next set of beads, I'm going to work my way
to that next outline color and we will stitch it to this outline color from the first side,
notice that I switched from segment to side so that I can actually say it without sounding
like I'm saying naughty words, Ok, and then stitch through this one, then through all
the accent beads in the middle, along the middle, they don't want to be all straight
for me so I'll just do it in 2 stitches, come out the very next outline color, where you'll
stitch it to the corresponding outline color on the first side. Then work your way to that
very last outside color and stitch it to the outside color on the other side,
*voila* and then once you've reinforced those 2 rows like you normally would with a square stitch, you'll
never be able to tell that there was any division between these 2 pieces, that's where you can
also getting away with creating 2 increase sections or 2 decrease sections, and stitching
them together with the middle, And that, comes to the end of our bracelet, now this pattern
is done as a soft increase and decrease but there's no reason you can't play with that,
there is also instruction in the pattern for how to create this bracelet which is where
I just did a single length all the way along and didn't do any increases and decreases.
You can make an increase and decrease more dramatic if you want to, you can take some
out if you're a more petite person and you don't want it to be quite as wide, it's completely
up to you, those are all design decisions that you can make. I hope you enjoyed making
your bracelet and I would love it if you share what you create, with me, as you finish it
up and wear it in good health. Thank you.