Grown-Up Friendship Bracelets — Leslie Unfinished

Aug 5

Aug 5 Grown-Up Friendship Bracelets

I can't seem to get enough of macrame bracelets. Maybe it's because I can watch a movie and macrame at the same time. And because it is still unbearably hot with no end in sight, I haven't even wanted to leave the cool comforts of home.

Since I've become a recluse, I've spent a wee bit too much time on the computer looking at Pinterest. Have you discovered it yet? I love it! It's basically an online bulletin board and now when I see an idea, I can easily find my way back to it.That's where I came across this Chan Luu bracelet for one hundred plus dollars (14 kt. gold plated brass beads and cotton cording). Looking closely at it though, it's just a few different macrame knots.

So I bought some DMC floss and some (less expensive) beads and went to work. These are actually three different bracelets put together.

On this one, I used a variegated cotton of blues and a thin silver cording from the ribbon department. A button with a shank hides the big knot at the end and fits into a woven button hole. (See How-To at the end of this post.) It wraps around the wrist three times.

This last one is all one bracelet (it wraps 5 times). After every wrist length I changed the knotting so that it looks like five different bracelets. I definitely did not want to run out of floss before I achieved my desired length, so I used the entire skein of DMC floss in each color. Good thing the floss is really cheap!

I used the basic knots that you can find on this previous Macrame Tutorial post. The closure I used on the bracelets in that tutorial was fine for hemp, but I didn't want a bunch of loose hanging strands of floss on these. So I found a different method that I like for these particular bracelets.

First chose a button to use for your closure. A button with a shank works great! With your cut floss strands together, fold in half and find the middle of the length.

About one inch to the left of the center is where you want to start. I taped mine to the top of my entertainment center so it had plenty of room to hang.

Then, following regular macrame directions, I made several half knots to create a spiral effect.

You want to make it long enough so that when you fold it over and knot the loose ends together it forms a loop to fit whatever sized button you've chosen for a closure.

Continue knotting your bracelet with your desired pattern. When you've reached your desired length, string ALL strands through the button shank and tie all strands in a knot.