Weave yourself a colourful watch band!

Currently home bound on medical leave because I finally succumbed to my flu and saw the doctor...  and as predicted the drugs are doing really funky things to me... so I'm fighting it by posting a tutorial! yay!

During my trip in Bangkok, I saw a stall at one of their markets selling these watches with really fun bands on them, they were weaves of colourful faux leather strips! So when I got back, I decided to try it out myself, I've never weaved before so this was a self-taught process.

Hopefully you can understand my steps below and my kooky illustrations :)

If you get it in a mess the first few times, just keep trying! It's really fun when you mix in your favourite colours and you can just as easily make them into friendship bands/ bracelets too!

What you need:

1. Seven colours of faux leather strips [choose your own favourites!]
2. End-clasps for the band
3. Attachment clasps for the whole watch - lobster clasp / hook and eye
4. Watch face without the straps
5. Clip board to hold your strips in place when you weave

So I used 7 strips because the watch face is quite broad, so my band needs to have a wider width to fit snugly to the face, so you would need to measure it out by weaving a bit first and see if it's too small or too large to go with the watch face you picked. 

If your band is too small, where you can see the rod of the watch where the band is supposed to cover, then you may need more strips to add on to the width, or if it's too big just take out as many strips you need to. Also the end-clasps for the band needs to be wide enough to hold all your strips together, if you have too small ones then it won't fit all your strips. Or if it's slightly small, you can overlap the strips when you crimp the clasp over it at the end.

This may sound complicated, but really it's not! It's really fun when you get the hang of it, and it's really cheap too! Faux leather strips can be bought for as little as 70cents a piece!

So with the finished band, you can use any old watch face that you like, I used my Fossil one, which my friend D. gave to me on my 21st Birthday, it came with a detachable strap so it's easy to change the it. But you can use any old one, or cheap one will do too where you can just remove the strap/band. 

Before you attach the band to the watch face, you will need to end off the weave. After you ensure that the band is long enough to go round your wrist and that its width is just nice to fit the watch's face, use 2 of these claps to grip the ends of the band - use a pincer to pinch it down hard on the ends so that they do not come off.

up close picture of the clasp - they can usually be found at hobby stores selling jewellery supplies and such. Usually sold in a small pack of 4 pairs they are inexpensive too!

So once clasped, attach the watch face to the band, the loop guard where the straps are usually attached to can be easily popped open, use a tweezer or pincer to grip the small rod and push it into one of its sides, it will usually spring out from the tension; to attach it back, do the same by placing one end back to its place then push it down and it the spring-like action will push the rod inward enough for you push the other side back in. Ok hopefully you'll understand what I just blabbered about!

For the watch clasps itself, you can use any that you may have, or a simple hook and eye clasp as I have used!

This weave band is so fun and addictive once you know how to make them! You can turn it to more than just a watch, it's also popular as friendship bands/bracelets! Make a few with variations of colours and mix it up with braided bands and wear them all together for a fun a bohemian look!

Cheers,

E.L.

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