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Saturday, July 16, 2011

Leather + Lace = Love

Leather is rough and masculine, lace is delicate and feminine. A perfect combination for bracelets, don't you think? Add some pretty buttons and you're all set.



From left to right: two pieces of leather, button with elastic thread closing; supersoft leather, vertical lace, button and snaps closing; sturdy leather, horizontal lace, leather cord closing.


I bought the lace at the market. I know could have crocheted it myself - in theory. It would just take too much time to learn how to crochet patterns like this. Some of the lace was a bit too bright white, off-white matched much better with the leather. So I figured out a way to dye the lace without too much hassle. The solution? Tea. Yes, I dyed the lace with some English Breakfast Tea! It gets the job done in just a few minutes time, without using any chemical substances. Just make some lukewarm tea, not too strong and leave the lace to soak for a few minutes. Don't rinse it afterwards, just let it dry.

Lace-tea
Dyed vs non-dyed

By the way, did you know my blog-o-versary is coming up? On August 4th it will be exaclty one year ago since I pledged to stop shopping and start making! I think I should make that week special, and I'm also thinking these bracelets should be part of it... Stay tuned!

2 comments:

  1. Oooh, gorgeous! I love tea-dying :)

    Those are beautiful---and leather and lace are the perfect combination! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tea dying reminds me of a scene in Amelie where she makes fake love letters and dyes them in tea to make them look old.

    Your bracelets are cool!!

    ReplyDelete

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