Basic Friendship Bracelet Instructions To Help You Make Your Own

These basic friendship bracelet instructions will help you to make your own friendship bracelet.

A friendship bracelet is as much fun to make as it is to give away. There are more patterns for bracelets just online than there are weeks in a year – add to that the stunning colors of embroidery floss and your choice increases tenfold. They are fairly inexpensive and they do make meaningful gifts for friends and family.

Materials and supplies include the embroidery floss in appropriate colors (look in craft store and many department stores), a craft (or any old) pillow, thickened / tough cardboard or a clip board (your work station), safety pins (for those using a pillow or cardboard as their work station), scissors and a fabric tape measure.

Most patterns call for about 60 inches of floss for each strand of color you will want to use. The skeins come in just over eight yard lengths so you can figure about five strands per skein. For a normal basic floss bracelet, one skein per color will be plenty of floss.

The work station or area you will be working from just has to be something you can fasten your work to keep it from flopping all over the place as you make your knots. Though it is not essential, it does keep the knots uniform and helps to define the shape of the pattern. Whatever you choose should sit in your lap comfortably as you work. Some girls just fasten a safety pin to their jeans and they are good to go.

These are just four basic knots involved if you intend to follow a pattern. The forward knot – commonly referred to as (F), the backward knot (B), the forward-backward knot (FB), and the backward-forward knot (BF). All the knots are easy.

To make a forward knot in red and white, you would start with one strand of each color – red on the left. Lay the red thread on top of the right thread – which will be the white, and position it to resemble the number 4. Loop the red thread under the white thread and pull it upward. Do this twice to finish the knot ending with the white thread on the left.

The backward knot (B) starts on the white thread (on the right) and moves in the opposite direction, to the left, repeating the above directions going the other way.

Once you have decided on a pattern and have your color scheme, measure the strands to the length needed and cut. Now lay the strands together and fold in half. Make a loop (1/4-1/2″) by tying a small knot – make sure it is tight. Secure it to your work station and lay the colors according to your pattern.

Now work the pattern according to the friendship bracelet instructions using the desired knots. When you have reached the desired length of your bracelet, separate all the strands regardless of color into 2 equal groups and braid each group about four inches. Finish each braid off with a tightened knot at the bottom. Trim remaining strands. To fasten, lay your wrist over the bracelet and pull one braid through the loop; tie to the other braid.

And that rounds up these friendship bracelet instructions.