How to Sew a Wrist Strap for Hello Kitty Charm

In December, I bought a Hello Kitty ezlink charm. This charm has the same function as a ezlink card so you can use it to take train, bus and pay for some transactions. I read in the papers that many people queued up to buy these charms from 7 eleven stores. Of course I didn't queue up. The first time hubs asked at the 7 eleven store where we live, it was sold out. But the staff said more would come soon. In the evening on the way home, hubs went back to the store and the store had a couple of boxes worth!

After acquiring the Hello Kitty ezlink charm, I soon found that it is very easy to misplace it. I spend so much time hunting for it I was getting fed up. It is especially annoying when you need it to get out of the train station and you're standing there digging in your bag!

A few days ago, I decided to sew a wrist strap to attach to the Hello Kitty charm. I figure if I have it round my wrist, I'm less likely to lose it. So while I was making it, I took a few pics and you can make your own wrist strap. It's not very hard and only requires 2 items, apart from the sewing machine, needle, thread, etc.

Supplies

You need a strip of fabric and a swivel lobster clasp.

To figure out the dimensions of the strip of fabric, you need 2 pieces of info.

How big is your fist?

Clench your fist and measure around your knuckles. Mine is 9 inch (23cm). Add 1 inch (2.5cm). If you prefer it a little loose, add 1.5 inch to 2 inches (3.5cm to 5cm). This is the length of your strip of fabric. For my Hello Kitty strap, I cut 10 inch (25.5cm) long.

How wide is your swivel lobster clasp?

If you are using something like this, measure the inner width. That's the widest your finished strip can be. To calculate how wide your fabric strip needs to be, let's pretend your inner width measurement is 1 inch. Multiply by 4 - 4 X 1 inch = 4 inch. 

In my Hello Kitty example, my swivel lobster clasp has a rounded ring. I cut a strip of scrap fabric, put it thru' and estimated my finished strip needs to be 3/8 inch. 4 X 3/8" = 1 1/2 inch.  The dimensions of my fabric strip: 10 inch long X 1 1/2 inch wide.

Let's make some creases, baby!
First, switch on your steam iron.

Put everything together

Click here for a tute on how to make your own hump helper.

Lastly, you need to sew across the strap to secure the clasp.

That's it. You're done.

You can also use this tute to make a wrist strap for your clutch or zipper pouch. Like this clutch below.