My daughter came to me one day and said she saw these really cool bracelets made from safety pins and beads. As luck would have it, I had just seen one as well so I promised to make her one. She wanted one made with smaller pins than the one she had seen, so I bought 3/4″ safety pins for mine.
Notes: Make sure you do the needle nose plyer step, don’t skip it. I was walking through WalMart and felt something poking me. I discovered that two pins on my bracelet had come open, all the beads had fallen off, and then were stabbing me as I walked. Also, made sure you get cord that will fit properly through the safety pin head and bottom. I used elastic beading cord.
Safety Pin Bracelet
3/4″ safety pins
Elastic beading cord
Seed beads
White craft glue
Toothpick
Open a safety pin and thread as many seed beads on as you can, leaving enough room to close the pin. Fasten the pin and squeeze it together using needle nose pliers to keep it from opening. Continue this process until you have enough pins for your bracelet.
Cut two pieces of elastic beading cord, about 12″ long each. Line them up evenly and loosely tie together at the end. This is just temporary so that your pins don’t fall off the other end as you thread them on.
Thread one of the cords through the head of a pin, then the other cord through the bottom of the pin. To ad the second pin, reverse it, so that your pins alternate, top, bottom, top, bottom. Be sure that the beads are all on the same side as you work or you’ll end up taking a bunch of pins off and starting over (trust me on this ha ha!).
When you have enough pins to create your bracelet, remove the knot from the tied end. Bring the bracelet together to create a circle.
Tie the top cords together and the bottom cords together. Trim all but about two inches off the cords. Tuck remaining cord into the underside of the pins and add a little bit of glue. Let dry.
Safety Pin Bracelet
Supplies
- 3/4 " safety pins
- Elastic beading cord
- Seed beads
- White craft glue
- Toothpick
Instructions
- Put some glue on a paper plate, about the size of a quarter.
- Open a safety pin and thread as many seed beads on as you can, leaving enough room to close the pin. Dip toothpick into the glue and use it to add a dot of glue to the end of the pin, then fasten. Continue this process until you have enough pins for your bracelet.
- Cut two pieces of elastic beading cord, about 12" long each. Line them up evenly and loosely tie together at the end. This is just temporary so that your pins don't fall off the other end as you thread them on.
- Thread one of the cords through the head of a pin, then the other cord through the bottom of the pin. To ad the second pin, reverse it, so that your pins alternate, top, bottom, top, bottom. Be sure that the beads are all on the same side as you work or you'll end up taking a bunch of pins off and starting over (trust me on this ha ha!).
- When you have enough pins to create your bracelet, remove the knot from the tied end. Bring the bracelet together to create a circle. Tie the top cords together and the bottom cords together. Trim all but about two inches off the cords. Tuck remaining cord into the underside of the pins and add a little bit of glue. Let dry.
More you might like from me:
Make Tie Dye Wall Letters
Ladybug Baseball Hat
Decoupage Light Bulb Birds
More cool stuff from the interwebs:
Pony Bead Safety Pin Bracelet – from Making Friends
Making Beaded Safety Pins – from Family Crafts at About.com
Safety Pin Belt – from …love Maegan
Amanda Formaro
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RaD says
I actually did this when I was a teenager! Crazy how things come back around in popularity!
Amanda Formaro says
Yes! It’s definitely a vintage craft :)
Jennifer says
My question is how do you keep the safety pin
from cutting the cord on the closed end?
Amanda Formaro says
Hi Jennifer. Adding glue to all the pins keeps them from poking anything :)
Dawn roll says
I like to make some thing new and i love crafts to
Gail Plaskiewicz says
I’ve also found out that the package of safety pins I bought are all not the same size! Now I probably won’t have enough! I bought them at the Dollar Store and they all looked the same size until I opened them up. I can’t wait until I get this done so I can see how it looks and if I should make anymore. I didn’t know they came in different sizes in a package. Who knew I would have so much trouble on a kids bracelet? LOL
Gail Plaskiewicz says
I still don’t know how many to use. I’ve heard people say 80, and then some say 100. They also said you might need more or less depending on the size of your wrist. How big was your daughters wrist and how many did you use? My wrist is 6 1/2 but I would also like to try 7 or 71/2 for gifts also. I don’t know how many I’ve already done but it’s not close to 80. Thanks for any help you can give me.
Gail Plaskiewicz says
I’m reading all this and I think I get it. I am making one for me right now. My wrist is 6 1/2 inches. I’m guessing this will fit once I get all the safety pins on. What I think I am trying to ask is what if someone has a 7″ wrist or 7 1/2 inch? How do you measure a wrist if you are making one for a gift? How big was this one, what sized wrist did it fit? How many safety pins are there? Is it comfortable to wear? I’m thinking I may need to buy some more for mine and for a bigger one. This is so cute and is a way to use my seed beads.
Amanda says
Sorry I didn’t get to this right away! Did you get this figured out?
Sherry Hays says
So glad I found this! My grandson saw them and wants to make one for his mom for Christmas. I made these as a girl, with my girl scouts when my daughter was young & now with grandkids! Thanks for making it easy!