Leather Cuffs: For Boys of All Ages

I decided that I needed to put some of the extra leather that I have on hand to good use.  I was pretty pleased with the leather bows and belts that I made, but lets face it, leather can be quite masculine.  My Sister In Law and I decided that our boys needed some leather man bands.

Unfortunately when we sat down to craft our 3, 2,  and 1 year olds were less than cooperative.  Luckily these  bands can be quite simple and quick to make. Due to the lack of child cooperation we kept the bands relatively simple.

We added some simple stitching to a couple of the bands, and to the other we added some inexpensive  studs that I picked up at the saddle store.

I had some snaps on hand that worked perfectly for this project.  They are Anorak snaps from Prym.  They are heavy duty enough to deal with leather, but they aren't too bulky.  They're perfect.  I really like the look of them with the leather.  If you decided to go out and buy some you will want to buy the attachment tool as well.  For this reason I'd suggest buying when notions are on sale at Joann's.

Now I couldn't my husband when it came to making leather cuffs.  I made him this simple band with off set snaps.  Who knows if he'll actually wear it, but I didn't want to leave him out of the fun.

For a basic tutorial on making this grown man band click read more below.

Grown Man Band Tutorial

Materials: 

1 piece of leather

Leather punch kit

Hammer

2 anorak snaps

Cutting mat


You will want to cut your strip of leather so that it is long enough to reach around the wrist plus 1 1/2".  You can cut it as wide as you'd like, but mine is cut 1 1/2" wide.  The strip of leather ended up being 9 1/2" long at the longest point, and 8 7/8" on the shorter edge.  You can cut your leather blunt at the end, but if you want to angle your end like mine you will want at least 1/2" difference in length.

Once your leather is cut and angled you will want to decide where you want to position your snaps.  I placed the top domed portions of the snap sets on my strip of leather to determine positioning.  Applying pressure to the snap piece will leave a small indentation in the leather and make it easy to punch your holes in the leather.  I first marked the positioning on the angled end of the leather.

Use Cutting Mat or board when using leather punch.

Punch Holes in the angled end of the leather using your leather punch.  If you don't have a leather punch you will want to create slits large enough for the stem of your snaps to slide through. Once your holes are punched in the angled end of your leather strip, you will want to determine the overlap of your band, and mark snap positioning on the blunt end.  It is easiest to do this by folding your strip into a circle, and marking the positioning with a pencil through the previously punched holes.

Attach snaps following manufacturers directions.  You will want the domed portion of the snap to be on the right side of the leather on the angled end, and the post end of the snap to be attached on the right side of the leather on the blunt end.

Notes:  If you are planning on doing some machine stitching, I highly recommend using a heavy duty thread, and a leather sewing machine needle.  If you have some hand stitching to do, you will want to look for a leather sewing needle and a thimble.  


For my 2 year old son's cuffs I cut the strips to be 7 " long.  They have ample room.  He can pull them off his wrists if he really doesn't want to wear it.

Be sure to stop by tomorrow for a tutorial on making a very feminine leather cuff.  I've been wearing mine for two days straight and can't seem to take it off.  It is so comfortable, and I think that it's pretty cute.

I'll be linking here.