I had the idea for these bracelets last year, but didn’t get around to doing anything about them until September. By then nobody’s thinking about something as quintessentially summer as friendship bracelets, so I put them away for today.
Proving that these things are just in the air, I’ve been seeing friendship bracelets everywhere this summer. I love them all, but as a grown up, I need to be able to go from a beachy hobo look to professional at a moments notice. Which means I can’t really wear my friendship bracelets until they turn all grungy and rot away. I wanted the laid back look of a friendship bracelet, with the practicality of adult living.
The secret is tying a little toggle clasp on to each end. Instead of having to tie knots whenever you want to wear them, you just slide the little toggle through the hole, and remove just as easily.
There are tutorials for these all over the web, but here’s mine.
Start by cutting a bunch of lengths of embroidery floss and tying them together with one big knot. Push a safety pin through that knot and use it to anchor it to some surface (a blanket or a pillow, say) so you have both hands to tie your knots. The finished width of your bracelet will depend on how many pieces of embroidery floss you use. You should also cut each piece plenty long enough. I found 4″ of floss to be about what you need to make 1″ of bracelet, if your bracelet is 8 pieces wide. If you make it wider than that, you’ll also need to make your pieces longer.
Take the thread farthest on the left and tie a knot around the thread next to it by looping it around and pulling it through. For my pattern, I tied two knots around each thread.
Pick up the next thread and tie two knots around it, and repeat this all the way across the row. Then start over again with the new left-most thread and tie knots over and over again until your bracelet is the size you want.
Tie the threads together in a knot and cut off any extra, leaving a couple of inches to tie on the toggle closure. I just slipped a couple of the threads through the holes on the clasp and tied little knots.
Making these brought back so many memories. My best friend in third grade, Nicole, and I used to sit and tie knots for hours and hours, including every recess. I plan on making a whole bunch and sending them out to all my pals, now grown up bff’s.
