Sep 10, 2014

Friendship bracelets tutorial

Those new "friendship"-style bracelets that are all over are so easy to make, there's no need to shell out the big bucks for them.


I'm gonna show you how to make the super easy braided bracelets. All you need is some cotton braiding cord, or really any cording that you like, and some scissors.

Take 6 pieces of cord about 16 inches long each. You can vary the colors however you want. Take all of the cords together and loosely knot one end about 2 inches from the ends of the cord. Then just start braiding like you would with your hair. Don't pull the braid too tight. You want to keep it kind of loose, so it will lay flat. Once your braid goes almost around your whole wrist, loosely knot the other end.

We kept the knots on the ends loose, so you can even out the braid. Make sure you have about an equal amount of loose cord after the knots. I always end up making my braid too long for my wrist, so I will undo a little of the braid in order to get it to be short enough to go around my wrist, but not all the way. Once you have your braid the length you want it, tighten the knots. After the knots are tightened, you'll need to cut some of the extra cords (only keep 2 or 3 per side). Cut the other cords as close as you can to the knot.

Now, gather all the long ends and tie a knot at the end to keep those together. Now, you can stop here and just tie the bracelet around your wrist. But I'm on my own and don't have anyone to tie my bracelets, so I make a slide close.

To make the slide, first cross the ends of the bracelet over each other. Then, take a piece of cording about 6 inches long. Make a loop near one end and hold across both of the ends of the bracelet. You should have one short cut end and the loop at the other.

With the long part of the cording, wrap around the bracelet ends 4-5 times (start wrapping from the cut end, and finish near the loop. When you are done wrapping, put the long end through the loop and pull on both ends. Check to make sure you can open and close your bracelet. You can cut the extra ends of the slide cord, but I like to make a knot very close to the wrapped cord and then cut.

Now, just slide on your bracelet and rock your new creation.

Did you ever make friendship bracelets back in the day?
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