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It's getting cold here but friendship bracelets can add a little bit of summer to your outfit even in the winter months. They are a snap to make and look so much more fancy than they really are. 

See the fishes?

All you need is three colors of embroidery floss. I also like to use buttons to finish off bracelets but you can just as easily secure the bracelet with some knots too.

How to:

REMEMBER WHEN MAKING FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS YOU ALWAYS USE DOUBLE KNOTS!!!!

I made this pattern on on this site which is a great place to find friendship bracelet patterns and tutorials. You can also generate you on patterns on the site and it's free!

On row 23, the first knot should be a backwards black knot, NOT A FORWARDS  GREEN KNOT!


I made this pattern but it would not allow me to modify this so, I actually started on the second green fish again after the two rows of blue stripes after the first blue fish. If you look at the flat picture of my whole bracelet, this might make more sense.

What the arrows mean:
The Left Diagonal: FORWARD KNOT
The Right Diagonal: BACKWARDS KNOT
The Left then Right: FORWARD BACKWARDS KNOT
The Right then Left: BACKWARDS FORWARDS KNOT

Arrows explained:
Here's a great video explaining the 4 basic friendship bracelet knots that are used in this pattern and all friendship bracelet patterns by FrootLoopable

This was a fast bracelet a made over the summer using up some extra beads and leather cord. It took about 30 minutes to make and it's adjustable in length. 

You can check out how to make it here on my Kollabora page!

Awhile back I order some tiny little glass vials on eBay for a project I have yet to get around to. Strangely the seller sent me some studs. I sat around with the studs and tried to come up with some clever idea but couldn't. Eventually I came up with these. They are easy and fun and you can get the suede cord in any color. There is real leather suede and vegan suede so this is also a great alternative for vegans. 

I have this cord in black, olive green, camel, dark brown, light blue, burnt orange, and purple, but there are so many other color options out there!

You can see these bracelets here on Kollabora.

Friendship bracelets will always hold a soft spot in my heart because they are the first craft that I got really interested in and because they are the first craft that I got good at making. Seriously, not to brag or anything but in junior high and high school people would buy me string, show me a picture, and ask me to make the bracelet. And I would. So here is my rainbow leaf bracelet I made this summer. I made two versions, this button closure one and one that had braids on both sides to tie a knot for closure. I wore the braided one all summer on my ankle. You can also check this project out on Kollabora here.

How to:

This "leaf" braclet is a more sophisticated version of a chevron braclet. If you can make a chevron, you can do this! It's bascially a reverse chevron (working from inner strands to the outer vs a normal chevron working from the outer strands to the inner strands.)

• fk=forward knot
• bk=backward knot
• ALWAYS, ALWAYS remember to do double knots

Choose five of your favorite colors of embroidery floss. Cut a long length of each and fold in half with a knot.

Arrange the strings: 1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 

(for my braclet, orange=1, yellow=2, lime=3, aqua=4, and purple=5)

Step 1: With the left string 4 make a  fk around 5. With the right string 4 make a bk around string 5. Join both string 4s with a fk.

Step 2: With the left string 3 make a fk around 5, then a fk around 4. With the right string 3 make a bk around string 5, then a bk around 4. Join both string 3s with a fk.

Step 3: With the left string 2 make a fk around 5, then a fk around 4, and then a fk around 3. With the right string 2 make a bk around string 5, then a bk around 4, and then a fk around 3. Join both string 2s with a fk.

Step 4: With the left string 1 make a fk around 5, then a fk around 4, then a fk around 3, and then a fk around 2. With the right string 1 make a bk around string 5, then a bk around 4, then a fk around 3, and then a fk around string 2. Join both string 1s with a fk.

Step 5: Repeat steps 1-4, reassigning the numbers based on the current position of the string. 

Continue until your bracelet is long enough. End with a button closure or braided strands to tie around your wrist. 

If you get confused just remember that its a chevron bracelet working from the inner strands to the outer strands.

Good Luck :)