How to Make a Beautiful, Cheap, Interchangeable Watchband in under 15 minutes

Being a huge fan of hers, I recently found a Wonder Woman watch on ebay for $6.  Hooray! However the watchband was cheap plasticky fake leather.  I set out to find a fun way to make a watchband and ended up with something that looks great!

 I knew when I ordered it that the watchband was ugly and mannish. I looked for a new watchband and those cost at least 3 times the cost of the watch itself.

I originally had the idea to create a Wonder Woman friendship bracelet watchband.  I thought about putting a ribbon on the back of it for comfort and ease of use.  Well, I discovered some fancy ribbon that fit the bill instead.  I still may make the friendship bracelet, but in the mean time, I've got a simple, quick band.

On to the watchband...

UPDATE: I found that they actually sell the elastic kind of the ribbon I use!

Supplies:

• Ribbon the width of your watchband slits.
• Back of ribbon should be soft against your skin.
• I started with about 10", but you can use whatever fits your wrist.
• Mine was $1.25 (on sale) for the whole roll.
• Velcro (omit if using elastic ribbon)
• 1" will do
• recommend a matching color, but it's ok if it doesn't match.
• Felt (optional - omit if using elastic ribbon) - small piece if your ribbon is scratchy on the outside.
• Craft glue (optional - omit if using elastic ribbon)
• Thread, scissors, etc.
• I used a sewing machine, but you can easily sew this project by hand or even use glue.

The old band was attached by a couple of stitches and some glue.  Easy to remove.

UPDATE: If you're using the elastic ribbon and your watch has a removable bar, simply sew one end of the band over the other.  You can just slip it on.  Super easy!

 I originally made the aqua colored band.  So it will be the example.  I only  had white velcro on hand, so you'll be able to see all the stitches on the velcro.  You can't see any of it when wearing it, though.

So you can see on the wrong side, is the soft part of the velcro.  

You don't want the scratchy part facing your skin.

The other side has the rough velcro.  You really don't need a whole lot of it.

Start out by turning under the edges by about a 1/4".

 My watch has very narrow slits, so the ends had to be thin.  If your watchband slits are wide, you can start your velcro at the very end.  I started one side of mine right inside the edge.  

Pin the soft velcro to the inside of one side of the ribbon.

 Pin the rough velcro to the outside of the other side of the ribbon.

Sew.

You can see that there's a scratchy edge where I folded over the ribbon.

 Pin a slightly larger than needed piece of felt to the scratchy part.

 Sew.  Trim the edges to fit the ribbon.

On the other end, put a little glue to keep the edges from fraying. 

Or you could always serge it if you have a serger.

If your watch slits are wide enough, you could turn under the ribbon edges twice to keep raw edges from being exposed.

Let the glue dry.

UPDATE: You can actually remove the rod by pushing down 

on one side with your nail.  It's a spring loaded rod, 

so be careful it doesn't shoot across the room.  

I've lost a few that way, but they're cheap on ebay to replace.

So you can basically disregard the part about slipping it under the rod below.

If your watch doesn't have a removable bar, you can do it the old way shown here.

Here's where the narrow slits are a little difficult.  

I slid one edge of the ribbon under.

You want the right side of the ribbon to face upward.

 Pull the band through.  I used tweezers.

 Then pull it through the other slit.

This is how it should look from the back.

That's it!  Your'e done!

A gorgeous, fancy pants watch band for under $1.

Oh, and the best part.  

You can change out the watchband easily.  

Just slip it out and slip a new one in.  

That's why I have 2...so far.

UPDATE: They make the elastic ribbon in multiple colors, so I have quite a few now, of course.