Flexible macramé bracelet. Tutorial.

There are all those friendship bracelets, true, they are for the young but I would love to wear one or two as well. The problem is, the concept of the friendship bracelet is that you should not take it off. Also, it would be nice to have a few in different colours and change them according to my mood. But it doesn’t work well if they are knotted on your wrist. So I was wondering if I can make something similar but flexible. I tried to make a few with clasps, but it is difficult to guess the right size. What fits my wrist, is too big for my daughter.

So I came up with the idea of the flexible macramé bracelet. Here is a tutorial, or rather an attempt to a tutorial – it’s my first time, so please, be patient with me. Also, when I started, I wasn’t sure how I would finish it, so at the end some pictures are missing. I photographed one step, didn’t like it, tried another one – and forgot to take a photo of that. Also, as I looked through this post, I can see that I am really bad about placing the photos and the text, the pictures are not aligned etc... please, forgive me, will try and learn how to do it better for next time.:)

Ok, so here it goes. First, what I used:

Black perle thread, black flexible cord, and some embellishments: buttons, a bead and a hanging little butterfly. I used double thread to give it some thickness. Earlier I made one with single thread and it looked lovely, too but you need smaller beads for that.
I cut the flexible cord 60 cm long and the perle 170 cm, and folded them in two. hanged them on a loop – I used a small embroidery hoop’s spring, but you can use anything provided you can slide it off at the end.

Then I put the hoop on the corner of a pillow, this is very comfortable for me. Started to make some simple macramé knots, keeping the flexible cord in the middle.











When I reached a certain length (I didn’t measure, I am so bad at planning, just guessed – but you might want to draw a simple plan for yourself to place the embellishments evenly), I checked which thread would be going across in front for the next knot.

I put a button on that thread (here it was useful to have double thread) and continued knotting. This is how it looks from the front and the back.



















Again, after a certain length I added the bead. This one had three holes, a big one in the middle and two smaller ones on two sides – but I think any bead could do, you can pull all the threads through the hole, or just the middle ones, and tie a knot around the bead with the other threads.


Then some more knots, another button, and some more knots again.

Now, here comes the trouble. On my previous bracelet I tried to weave in all the thread ends, but it wasn’t a huge success, it is difficult to hide so many, there was a bulk in the bracelet. That’s why I thought now I will not hide them, but use them for an accent.
First, I took off the beginning loop using a needle so as not to lose the hole as it was quite small. Then I pulled the flexible cords in the middle through the loop and pulled them taut.


















I secured the middle threads with a pin. And then I knotted the last few knots to cover up this place where the beginning and end meet.














There I was, the bracelet done but lots of threads hanging out of it. So I tied the small butterfly on them and cut the ends, leaving a tassel-like ending. Not a perfect solution, but I kind of like it. Will have to think about finishing it in a better way.




This is how it looks like - a bit tight on my wrist but will be perfect for my daughter.