Vegan-Friendly Cuffs

I am really excited to share this project with you. It was really fun, easy, and there are a million ways to customize these cuffs.

Supplies:

Vegan Leather (vinyl or pleather)

Snap fasteners

Masking Tape

Scissors

Hammer

Paint brush

Acrylic Paint

Spool of thread (not for sewing, don't worry)

I found an old bracelet that I liked the width of, so I did this the easy way and traced it on the back of my vinyl. The dimensions I came up with were 2" x 6.5"...but this is all based on my wrist. A tape measure would be handy (just wrap it around your wrist and give it about .5" extra at one end) if you don't have a flexible bracelet like I did.

Once I cut out my cuff, I started playing around with different designs. 

Using masking tape, I sectioned off my cuff with triangles.

I used 2 coats of everyday acrylic paint for this cuff and it turned out to be my favorite.  For my others, I tried combinations of spray paint, black ink and spray fixative. The paint was the easiest to work with and had the best results.

I purchased these Snap Fasteners from JoAnn Fabrics. They were about $5.00 for 7 snaps.

Here comes the fun part that I'm going to do my best to try to explain. Try on your cuff, marking where you want your snap to be with a pencil on each side. Take your fastener circle (the one with the little sharp teeth on it) and place it on the wrong side of your cuff, teeth side down. Gently hammer the teeth into the fabric so they begin to poke through. Do this on a lightly padded surface. I did it on top of my extra vinyl.

Flip over and place your female end to your snap on top of the teeth you just poked through the right side. Give it a good hammer and it should grasp onto the teeth and now be secure in place.

Now for the other end, repeat the process but place your fastener on the right side of your fabric. Hammer down so the teeth pop through the other side.

Flip over and place your male snap on top of the teeth. This time, grab a sewing spool and place directly over the snap. Hammer on top of the spool.

This way you don't smush the head of your snap with the hammer.

Here's a cuff, ready to go!

I sprayed some spray glue on the back of some of my cuffs and attached some scrap fabric I had to give it more of a finished look. This is optional and not really necessary, just thought I'd share incase you wanted to customize these even more, or make them reversible. Just make sure to do this step before adding your snaps.

This was a really addicting project, I can't wait to make more!

--Emily Jo