DIY Washer Bracelets and Necklaces for Kids

Make these DIY Washer Bracelets and Necklaces with your kids to give as gifts to their classmates and friends!

This DIY is kid-friendly with no engraving techniques, spray painting, or complicated clasps.

We made a few mistakes at the start of this project. I bought a few unnecessary supplies and struggled with things like knotting and what size washers to buy. But once we figured it all out, we got rolling, and it was really easy to make 1 or 31 in our case.

Supplies

Just a note on supplies. I only bought the Black Satin Cord for necklaces through Amazon (link below). I provided a link to the Nylon Cord for convenience. Amazon sells cording primarily in bulk. I only needed 12 yards, so I picked that up at Michael’s.

• Flat Washers, preferably stainless steel (5/16 or 7/16 for bracelets and 7/16 or 9/16 for necklaces). These sizes seemed to work best, and I recommend stainless steel or something less likely to rust.
• Mod Podge Dimensional Magic
• Nail Polish
• 1.5 mm Nylon Cord (for bracelets)
• 1 mm Nylon  or 1 mm Waxed Cotton Cord (to make sliding knots on bracelets…video link below for more detail)
• 2mm Satin cording (for necklaces, this is the exact cord I purchased through Amazon)
• A toothpick (used to spread Mod Podge Dimensional Magic)
• E6000 Adhesive (only needed if you plan to glue on charms like the gears on ours)
• Charms, beads, sparkles, embellishments (optional)

Decorating and Sealing With Mod Podge Dimensional Magic

There are tons of different washers and sizes. We used a few different sizes, but liked the 5/16 or 7/16 size for bracelets and 7/16 or 9/16 size for necklaces. Note: 7/16 refers to the hole size. 

Now this is where the fun part comes in. I gave my kids a bunch of different nail polishes that I bought from the dollar store and let them go to town decorating. On some, they sprinkled glitter before the nail polish had dried completely.

We also used E6000 adhesive to glue gears onto some of the washers and let them dry. 

To finish, we spread Mod Podge Dimensional Magic over the top surface of the washer and used a toothpick to spread it out (edge to edge) over the surface and work out any air bubbles.

Note: Mod Podge Dimensional Magic will look like a milky dome on the surface of the washer but will dry clear. Let dry for 24 hours before cording.

Cording For Necklaces

My son made necklaces for the girls in his class and bracelets for the boys.

Necklaces were easy. We used a 2 mm black satin nylon cord and made the cord long enough to slip over their head. You need to knot one end and pull the cord through to make a lark’s head knot to attach the cord to the washer.

Sliding Knot Instructions for Bracelets

Bracelets were a little different and required 3 pieces of cord.

First, you will need to knot two 14-inch pieces of 1.5mm cord, then pull them through the washer, making a lark’s head knot as shown above.

Then cut a thinner 1mm nylon cord 8 inches long for the sliding knot. There are a few ways to make a sliding knot. 

My youngest wore his bracelet, and the sliding knot unraveled the first way I tried it. The method in this video (from Jessica at jewelrytutorialhq.com) seemed to work best. The knot stayed put! Her video recommends a 1 mm waxed cord, but I just used the 1 mm Nylon Cord I had on hand, and it worked out fine.