I think this will clarify more:
I circled the 4 beads I meant by leaving 4 rows at each end of the triangle:
You are going to need these to build the straps in the back. If you think you're going to need more support, you can always leave more than that (like 5, 6...I wouldn't do anything thicker than that). EDIT: YOU CAN'T MAKE THE BACK STRAP 5 ROWS, YOU MUST USE AN EVEN NUMBER. I JUST DISCOVERED THAT THE HARD WAY WITH ANOTHER TOP I'M WORKING ON =/
In order to build the straps, you continue along as if you were building the triangle down EXCEPT you do not string through any beads before adding a bead. Remember when building the triangle you had to string through the bead at the top in order to get the triangle shape? Well we want the strap to be flat on both ends, so you just add a bead each time.
I will show you in pictures, but I might end up doing a flower strap (something I saw on another top online....if I can figure it out!).
Okay, notice in the picture above that my string is coming out of the orange bead at the bottom. To make the strap, just decide on what colors you want to go across your back. My friend is wearing zebra and pink for NYE I think, so she might be able to incorporate this top if I add more pink. So I guess I'm doing mine pink colors...I can always change to flowers later I suppose.
Okay, so my strap for now will be a combination of pink, black and sparkle (since I do have a tiny bit of sparkle beads in the middle of the triangle).
I'm going to string a pink glow bead FIRST then string UP through the beads that are sticking out.
Then I'm adding a magenta bead to complete the pattern for the triangle. Make sure at each point you pull SUPER TIGHT. I noticed when I wore my other top that this area pulled the most. You want to make sure you really pull hard so that this part holds really well (it really looks sloppy if it pulls at you can see space between the beads).
Here is the difference with the strap. Now instead of stringing through the magenta bead that's sticking out FIRST (like we would have when building the triangle down), we want to string a bead.
This is the pattern I'm going to follow so I'm going to STRING a black bead FIRST then string through the magenta bead that is sticking out.
Next I will string a magenta bead through the bottom pink glow bead.
*Note: If you think 4 rows won't be enough support and you want the strap a bit thicker, NOW is the time to undo a few rows and make it however thick you want.
So basically, to continue the straps out you just keep repeating what I demonstrated. It's exactly like making the triangle except you don't want to string through beads without stringing a bead on first. Does that make sense? Also, remember to pull very tightly!
Here is mine after I have added more of the pattern:
Just continue out this strap as long as you think you'll need it to eventually connect it to the other triangle. Keep in mind that the elastic band stretches quite easily (the top I wore to nocturnal was like sliding up and down my body by the end of the night!)...so you want to make the strap like an inch or so shorter because trust me it will stretch out.
Now I don't want to make my other triangle just yet because I haven't heard back from my friend if she likes it or not (by the way it looked awesome last night with the lights off. The glow beads in between the solid beads made it look striped glowy in the dark. Mmhmm.)
Anyway my point with that is, I'll show you how to connect the triangles using the snowflake one I'll probably wear for NYE.
Here is what you do...
Go ahead and lay out the two triangles (with the 4 rows left) next to each other like so:
Looks like I'm going to need to add one more row to the rainbow top on the left (my bad). Should look like this:
Now you want to weave these two triangles together. I will take my string from the top sitting on the left (coming through the top pink glow bead...not the one sticking out) and pull it through the top silver bead on the top at the right. Then I will pull the string back to the top on the left through the glow bead sticking out. Then I will pull it back to the top on the right through the blue bead sticking out. Then lastly I will pull it back to the top on the left through the purple bead.
Should look like this:
Then just pull as tight as you can to weave these triangles together. You should then have two strings hanging out the bottom. To finish, just tie and knot these together. I always super glue also. Mine looks like this (without the knotting and glue obviously as I don't want these 2 stuck together!).
Now you have something that looks like this:
If you are more busty, and you feel like you want the tops to join closer together (or if you want them to join more apart) just undo or add more rows before weaving the triangles together (as in you don't have to leave 4 rows...you can leave more or less and then weave together). It's all personal preference and necessity.
Ok, once you have made the back strap as long as you need it (you have to determine that for yourself....like I said, try to make it a little shorter so you allow for when it stretches out)...it's time to connect it to the other triangle. Just make sure you have the rows matching up exactly like how we connected the two triangles.
Basically they should look like this, and then you weave them together and tie/knot/glue it off just like how we connected the triangles together:
You can go ahead and tie the strings hanging from each triangle too. I haven't yet figured out how to eliminate those strings from the process....so yeah these are the ones I'm talking about:
Just tie and glue these and cut off the string that's hanging (goes for each triangle).
Now most of your top is complete!! Yay congrats =) Haha I'm a geek I know
Anyway, all that's left now is the neck strap. I will post how to do that later today hopefully!
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
