I made these cute fabric-covered bangles for my little girl the other day. I’d been meaning to make some since I saw a lovely bunch of them at the local handmade markets. Rather than buying new materials for craft projects, I like to up-cycle old stuff that’s destined for the bin. I’d already bought a couple of preloved hard plastic bangles complete with bright pink and bright blue animal prints from a charity store – fabric-covering the solution to these being fashionable again. They will have to be covered another time because Miss L found some used glow sticks on our recent camping trip and insisted on bringing them home…Mummy took them aside when Miss L was sleeping and turned them into something much prettier. Miss L agreed they were lovely with the nice fabric.
Covering the bangles with fabric is a very quick and simple process. Simply cut a length of fabric (I used a vintage fabric remnants from a charity store) around 25mm wide and up to a metre long – I used 80cm lengths for these bangles as they are small. Fold in one side of the strip to the centre, running along it’s entire length and ironing in place as you go. Do the same with the other side, so that you end up with a long length of fabric with neat folded edges on either side. Then start wrapping!
I found that I didn’t need to glue the fabric in place at the start, but if you find it’s wanting to slip away then feel free to add a small dab of glue to secure the fabric to the bangle. You need to be quite firm with the wrapping, keeping a hold on the free fabric strip as you go.
Keep wrapping until the bangle’s covered and you reach the end of the strip. Then simply glue the end in place (I used PVA) inconspicuously on the inner side of the bangle.
You can whip up…or wrap up…a bundle of these in no time. They ‘d make great gifts for little girls…or big girls if you use regular size bangles.
Do you have some old, ugly bangles from the 80’s or 90’s you could cover? Or are you wondering what you could do with some expired glow sticks that your kids have acquired? Then give bangle-covering a go!
Two Striped Cats 