HAND-CRAFTED LEATHER GOODS

Mystery braiding:- Closed-end, five-strand

The length of your leather strip and its width are entirely at your discretion. You will have determined this by your trial and error efforts already. It is preferable to cut your slits shorter as they can be extended, but too long initially means a loose, finished, braid. The amount of leather left uncut by the strands at the ends is also a variable, as will be be its shape, particularly if you are making a watch strap.

STEP ONE (Fig. 1): make four cuts into the leather strip so that it is divided into five equal strands.

STEP TWO (Fig. 2): bring strand 1 to the right over strands 2 and 3 then bring strand 5 back over it and strand 4 as in Fig. 3.

STEP THREE (Fig. 4): take strand 2 and bring it over strands 5 and 3 then pass the strands from right to left over strands 1 and 2 as in Fig. 5.

STEP FOUR (Fig. 6): in this illustration two steps are shown. First bring strand 3 around and over strands 5 and 4. The upper portion of the strip must be held intact and you'll see there have been five different passes. Next take the bottom of the strip and pass the complete end through the opening between strands 3 and 4.

STEP FIVE: now the braid should look like Fig. 7. Meanwhile, pay no attention to the tangled up strands at the bottom, and continue to work at the top.

STEP SIX: take strand 1 and bring it over strands 2 and 3 (as shown in Fig. 8). Repeat this procedure from each side four times more, then take the entire bottom end of the strip through strands 3 and 4 as illustrated in Fig. 9. When you have done that the lower part of the braid will straighten itself out as shown in Fig. 10. Now, having reached this point, you begin all over again, passing strand 1 over strands 2 and 3 as shown in Fig. 1. When you reach the stage corresponding to Fig. 6 turn in the bottom as before, continuing as in Fig. 7 until the end.

STEP SEVEN: pull the braid tight at the top to give yourself space to work at the bottom, then when the braid is finished, loosen it all up until it is evenly spaced throughout.

Click for Five-lace braiding

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