While snoop shopping online for gift ideas, I saw an amazing double-wrap bracelet. Equally as amazing was the cost! As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention, and we seamsters are an inventive bunch. So I decided to make my own. You can too.

Make friends with leather. In this tutorial from Quick Stuff to Sew, Vol. 1, I’ll show you how to make three cool cuffs: a headband, a bracelet, and a belt. Leather is desirable because it has both a sensuousness and a slight edge. By making, say, a headband in leather rather than fabric, you can take it beyond an ordinary accessory and transport it into the realm of cool, hip, and sassy. And you’ll find that leather is surprisingly easy to work with. With the right tools and a little patience, you’ll get results that look like they just walked off the runway.