Craft #3 Hex Nut Bracelet-- Braided

Bonjour!

I have two bracelets for you, both involving the same materials!
This past winter, before I had succumbed to Pinterest, I found this tutorial for a DIY braided hex nut bracelet, which I promptly made.  I bought a whole little box of hex nuts, so they've been sitting around my apartment since then.  I've tried things with them here and there, but now I'm officially out to use them up!
So here is bracelet #1-- The Super Cool Hex Nut Bracelet

Basic idea:  thread a hex nut (or bead) onto your strands as you braid

I started out with some string that I pilfered from my parents' house, and to make it more interesting I added a strand of the blue thread that I got for the Easter egg project. It ended up sneaking in and out of the braid and added a nice touch.

I cut three long strands of the string, knotted an end and taped it to the table for an anchor, and braided several inches.  It might be best to judge how far in you want to start the hex nuts for yourself (I have fairly skinny wrists).  It just needs to be long enough that you can tie the ends together!
For your planning purposes: on my bracelet, 10 hex nuts is about an inch, I used 16, and it's centered nicely on my wrist.


So now you need to start adding the hex nuts. Let's say you have just put the right strand over to the middle and you're about to do the left side. First, thread the hex nut on and let it slide and nestle up to the braid, then bring that strand over to the middle.




Next you do the same to the right side. Thread the hex nut on, nestle it, bring the strand to the middle.  It's just basic braiding with an addition.
I wasn't able to get super great pictures of this part (I need to start doing projects when my roommates are home so they can help me!) so if you get confused, the original DIY has a great series of pics to help!


Since I already made a basic bracelet, I wanted something different, so I decided to make it loop around my wrist twice. After I braided the first 16 hex nuts on, I stopped adding and just continued braiding until I had gone far enough that it brought me back to the top of my wrist. Then started braiding in the hex nuts again, but twice as many as the first one.  Then was a tail for knotting , et voila!
As an added bonus/if you want to get really fancy, does anyone remember these bad boys? How the ends are knotted around the string so you can slide the bracelet looser and tighter? Fun fact: Google says those are slide knots, and after some trial and error, I made one around the middle! Because the hex nuts are so heavy, it was a little hard to get everything situated so I could tie the ends myself.  This way, I can slide it loose, put it on, tighten it, and tie the other end.  Next time I would give myself extra, extra room on the ends so that I could do slide knots on both ends, to be exactly like those 80s/90s bracelets.
So there we go! Hex nut use #1, #2 to follow soon!

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or really anything you want to say, leave me a comment! 

I would love to know what you're thinking! :)