Learning to Ladder

Every Christmas my family exchanges family names for gift giving.  This year I got my brother John's family who has three girls.  This past weekend I delivered Part II of my Christmas present to my nieces.  Part I was the kneehugger elves which I posted about here.

Part II was a class on How to Make a Ladder Bracelet...

In the past, I enjoyed making gifts for the girls myself but, now that they're older, I find we all enjoy it more when they get to create their own designs and make something themselves.

That being said, I wanted them to get a good idea of all the bracelets that were possible once they learned the laddering technique, so I made them each a little bracelet catalogue....

Explaining what the gift included and giving lots of pics of design possibilities that I found on the internet.

The first step included a trip to the bead store...Accent Beads in Rockville, MD...

There were so many beads to choose from that narrowing down choices was challenging.  The book was a helpful reference as we shopped...and roundish beads work best since they ladder very nicely.

I love seeing which beads attract their eye and which ones don't...

And they each had a budget to work within so there was some degree of decision-making.  How could you maximize the number of beads within the budget while still getting what you love???

Ladder style wrap bracelets have been pretty popular the last few years.  A ladder bracelet is typically made using two lengths of leather cord and lacing beads between them.   I made my first one a couple of years ago which you can read about in this post.

The actual beading is fairly straightforward so it's a good project for beginners.  There are great videos and examples of many ladder style bracelets at Beadshop.com if you're interested.

Each girl got their own bead mat to lay out her stash...

And we hunted through my button stash to find just the right closures.  Everyone chose a shank button but you could use a two-hole button as well.

We made a half-hitch knot with the leather cord through the shank of a button and pinned it to the top of empty cardboard bolts from the fabric store.

This makes a great working space and allows you to place tension on the cord by secure the leather ends with either tape or another pin.  This set up helps to keep thread tension even as you ladder stitch.

We also used those big-eyed beading needles threaded with beading cord (you'll need two per person-I forgot that part)...

These needles are really easy to thread and rarely come unthreaded, a valuable factor when you're teaching someone how to bead.  The fewer frustrations the better.

And so we beaded for a few hours...

All the girls plus their Mom.  My SIL's birthday was Dec 20 so she was making her own birthday present...

And she didn't seem to mind, bless her.

We laughed and made mistakes and smiled and laddered and sang and drank tea... [Aside: They all think I drink a LOT of tea.  Evidently, they don't drink enough.]

After about five hours, some of us were able to make TWO bracelets...

And everyone made at least one.

Hands down, they all did a great job...

Thank you girls for a great day...I just hope you have me back again.  I promise to bring my own tea supply.

Happy happy Monday to everyone else.  

P.S.  The formula for the amount of leather cording you'll need for each bracelet is:

[(circumference of the wrist in inches) x (# wraps desired) x 2] + 14 inches = total # inches of leather cording needed

I share this since we kind of figured this out the hard way.  http://www.beadshop.com/projects/youtube-videos/