How to Make a Create Recklessly Faux Leather Bracelet with Melissa Cable

Note: This audio transcript is auto-generated and may not be completely accurate.
hi I'm Melissa table with create recklessly and I'm here to show you how to make this faux leather sampler bracelet in this lesson we're going to learn how to cut the leather into matching pieces we're gonna learn how to apply spots to connect them together eyelets to create some negative space snaps and we'll even add some tap rivets into our new design in order to learn how to set all of our hardware properly let's begin the first thing we need to start with is choosing three colors of our faux leather I've already cut two of the pieces here but let's go ahead and cut this third one so we have a chance to do it together you'll notice I'm taking my ruler and I'm placing it on the leather on the portion of the leather that I'm going to keep so the width of my panels it's the exact width of the ruler just to make it easy for us today I'm opening my rotary tool by pressing the lever I'm positioning my finger on the finger trigger and pushing away from me and closing it for a good safety measure I can sit this piece aside and use it for another project later on now we'll place the faux leather in the order in which they'll appear on our bracelet so that we can remember which panels were cutting next the real trick to this bracelet is learning whether we're cutting a leading edge which is the edge to the right hand side of the panel or a trailing edge which is the edge to the left side of the panel we're going to start with our end color which will be this one here and I'm going to cut my initial cut let's move these out of the way so I can angle this to get a little bit better cut and then the width of it is completely up to you for this end piece you want to make sure you leave enough to be able to apply a snap later on and so here's our first piece set this aside in our order so we remember we're going to take our new piece of leather and we're going to cut a leading edge so we're going to cut what we want the next right hand cut to look like now you'll notice this cut is angled this way so just to get some variation I'm going to angle this a little differently and go this way and now that I know what the right side of my panel is going to look like I can place the first panel over it and create a matching cut now notice it's really important that these line up completely if you're slightly off your panels are not going to line up and the bracelet won't look straight and a good straight cut and any excess set aside because you'll always be able to use it for another project or even for another panel for this bracelet I'm going to start really building my bracelet here now I'm going to move this one down because I know I'm going to need to match it soon I'm going to take my next piece and create another leading edge now remember this one is angled this way so maybe I'll do slight angle like this I'm still trying to conserve my leather so I work down at the end back and create a matching edge here I want to try to vary the size the panels so they're not all the same size or the same angles and if you don't like a panel just cut a new one so now I can slide this one down and start building my bracelet here and I'm going to continue this till I have about seven to eight inches depending on the length of bracelet that you need I'm gonna pick this up now sometimes in this case this almost matches I can use it however I don't recommend it because as you can see while it looks like it matches our leather is actually angled up and that's going to create a problem for us long term your bracelet won't look flat but what I may do once in a while let's flip it over and choose to have that being my leading edge so that I don't have to cut a new one however let's not do this in this case and let's just start from scratch so we're going to cut a new leading edge here and match up make this one a little bigger so we get some good variation on size plus I happen to really like this color it's one of my personal favorites right this guy can move down in line and move him back and we'll keep continuing on until all of our pieces are cut now as I reached my final piece I know that I'm near the end so I went ahead and I cut that and flat so that I can have two flat ends and I may trim that down a little bit more after I get everything connected together and pretty confident of the length that I need the next decision we need to make is where our hardware is going to be placed and we want to do that before we connect everything together otherwise it's very difficult to set this upside down and set this Hardware with these spots kind of balancing everything for us so in this case I noticed that I have two of each color on the surface if you don't count the ends so I'm going to try and distribute my hardware there so I'm going to choose to do some negative space which is what I call using the quarter inch eyelets and these two pieces here and then I'm going to do some rivets on these here and then we'll leave our green spaces neutral I also like this because it breaks up these two colors from each other and they're a little similar and it helps define them a little better so let's start by setting some of our hardware eyelids first first thing we need to do is to pierce our holes so if you remember when we're piercing holes in faux leather to set an eyelet we want to go ahead and use one smaller hole size so rather than using the 1/4 inch size which would match our eyelets I'm going to use the 3/16 I can do my very best to Center it and it doesn't have to be centered if you want to put your negative space somewhere else on your piece now that our holes are pierced we can go ahead and switch the head of our tool to the large eyelet setter and it's labeled large eyelet so there's no question which one you need to use I'm going to place my eyelets in the hole and again I'll just slightly stretch it around there so it's a good nice tight fit you can see how nice the copper pops off of this blue and then I'm going to turn it over and place a washer on each one the washer comes with the eyelets which technically makes it a grommet when you use it and allows it to be really a strong fit and no chance of stretching the piece to have it come out on this one I actually did it without the grommet so you could see that you risk the danger of stretching those out of the piece if you don't use the grommet or the other ways that we discussed in the setting eyelets video be sure to take a look at that and learn some different ways to set your eyelet securely in stretching materials now we're going to set these we need to use the flat side of our anvil I'm going to place the surface face of that pilot and give it a couple good strikes and now our eyelets are set and we know that they're secure so let's turn these over and put them back in our design so we don't get any mixup on where everything goes when we go to assemble it now we need to go ahead and Pierce the holes for our cap rivets we're going to use the 1/8 inch hole punch for that you can exchange out our large eyelet setter with the 1/8 inch hole punch and do our best to place those in the center but of course they could go anywhere you could put multiple cap rivets on one piece if you'd like to I'm going to place our captive it post from the back and then we're going to snap the caps on to the front you'll hear it snap when the cap goes on and then you'll know it's on there securely just enough to hold it until we set it all right now to set these we're going to switch our tool to the small rivet setter here and again you can always check to see that you have the right tool by making sure that it covers that rivet head completely now we're going to move this over to our block I prefer to set this on the concave side of the block because it is slightly rounded I want to try and preserve that round head and the round back of it and now our cap rivets are set and secure and we'll put them back in line as well and then the final hardware we need to set before we set the spots will be the snap and what I'll do on this piece is only set one side of the snap so I can actually decide when I'm all done how long I want the bracelet to be and I can set the second side at that point so let's set the cap on this side we're going to go ahead and take our 1/8 inch place a hole in the center now you want to make sure you leave enough room for that cap to come into the edge of the leather you don't want to be out here you don't really have anything grabbing to take it off but you also don't want to be over here where it's gonna interfere with some of our spots so try and believe just about an eighth of an inch at the end or more once my hole is placed I can place the cap on the front and then I'm gonna do the receiver on the back now if you want a good trip for remembering which pieces of a snap go together be sure to watch our videos on snaps and we'll talk a lot about how the cap and the receiver go together we're going to take our snap over to our setting anvil and now we're going to change our tool out to our line 20 snap and it's labeled fairly clearly so you'll have no question whether you have the right setter and give it a few strings now here comes the fun part we get to start assembling the piece so let's move some of our excess material out of the way and start bringing them up two by two the first thing we need to do is load our eight millimeter spot piercer onto our tool handle this is going to allow us to create perfectly spaced blots to put the spots into and so you're going to line these up so that it's about a sixteenth of an inch in and decide where you want it on the piece how far at the top or far how far at the bottom so I'm actually going to move my down just a little bit so I want to use round spots this time and so I need a little bit more room okay right there and I want the spacing to be about right there as well the spacing between the two panels so now I can pierce it once those are lined up I can move down and place my second one in and let's go ahead and place a spot in so we can see how our design is looking so I'm going to put one prong in one panel another prong in another panel and do the same down here now this is really strong strong faux leather so you'll notice that I could pull and pull and pull and even stretch those holes and it's not going to rip but now I have a pretty really decorative connection between the two and you'll notice the spacing down the middle is even so to close these we're going to start one with our fingers when you can some people have a little more hand strength than others and that's okay because we'll always come in afterwards with a light hammer on here we'll always come in with the light hammer and finish closing that on both sides again if you can start one side and now we have our first two panels connected and we're going to repeat this all the way down we're going to move up our next panel mimic the spacing between the first two the best you can place the tool making sure you keep your space and the location of your panel in the proper place and Pierce I wanted to show you some alternative ways in case you struggle with working with your faux leather this will give you some more tips to use in any project that you do so if you are having a hard time holding your pieces in place while you were piercing them with the spot piercer a good trick is to take a piece of blue painters tape upside down so the sticky part is facing up so I have these two pieces here that are holding it down for me then I can easily take my spot piercer position it and quickly go through and Hammer all of my holes in one swoop this will do very minimal damage to the back of your piece because the back is such a great fine weave of fabric that you won't find you have damage so just be slightly a little fuzzy and the last two and then I'll connect the two pieces together now that I have my pieces pierced I'm gonna pull them off two by two and you can see again the back still looks great she's slightly a little bit fuzzier which doesn't hurt a thing it's still very comfortable against the skin but I want to also show you an alternative way to close your spots in case you're struggling with that as well you're gonna lift that attach these two here now you can use a pair of flat nose or chain nose pliers to close these spots the thing to keep in mind that oftentimes people will end up closing them with a gap between the spot and the tip because the pliers aren't holding that space so be sure to ant bend that entire prong as you bend it push that one down now he's almost down and use this plier and push him down and then you can kind of use the pliers to close them so that's an alternative way when I do that I really do still like to try and go there with a hammer just to make sure that this tip is completely down so it doesn't snag on anything so let's go ahead and attach all of these pieces together now so now we have our two sides together the side that we connected traditionally and the side that we use the tape is a little trick to help hold everything down while you pierced it now we're ready to put on the final side of the snap what I like to do now is try it on and see top the size that I want it so I really wanted it about about the end here so I know my snap is going to be about right here I'm gonna mark that with my finger how's it go and and take just a little pen to remind yourself where it's going to be now I'm gonna trade out again to our 1/8 inch hole punch and punch a hole for that second side of the snap and let's go ahead and before we set that snap trim the end of our piece now we know our snap is going to go right here so when we trim what about again and eight of an inch at the end so I'm going to trim it about right there now we're going to set our snap going to place the snap post through the back and the snap stud in the front we're going to turn our anvil over to the flat side because we're placing the flat side of the snap on it and we're going to find our line twenty snap to use the snap setter square out the eyelet on the end of that snap post and now our snap is set thanks for joining us in creating a faux leather sampler bracelet you had a chance to set eyelets to set cap rivets to set spots and snaps all while learning how to cut and assemble leather into beautiful designs I hope you have a chance to play with the create wrecklessly line soon you