DIY thread-wrapped jewelry

Today's post is all about repurposing.  In clearing out my jewelry recently I ran across this gold bracelet; from what I remember, I received this as a graduation present.  High school graduation.  So, yes, it's been a while!  Obviously it hasn't been used much as the tag was still attached!  So I decided to try to turn it into a piece of jewelry I might actually wear by wrapping a band of colored thread around the middle of the bracelet.

I bought a spool of this lustrous nylon thread at Hancock's ($2.99 regularly, but it was on sale for 40% off, so this ended up being a really inexpensive project).  I liked this thread because it was pretty shiny.  The only other tool required (besides time and patience) is a pair of sharp scissors.  I chose a dark green thread because I thought the color looked good with the gold, but there are lots of other color combinations that would work: silver chain with navy thread, gold chain with black thread, etc.

To start, I first determined where I wanted the band to begin and end, then simply knotted the thread tightly and started winding.  I found that the best technique was to hold the chain right at the area where I was working, tightly wind a few loops around, then stop and use my fingernail and thumb to push the strands together so that no gold shone through.  It took a while, but was pretty easy work.

Here's the finished product!  For the end, I just again tied a few knots, then snipped off the extra thread.  Here's what it looks like on:

Two realizations: one, I am not cut out to be a hand model.  Two: I kind of miss the days of making friendship bracelets.

This project is linking up to