DIY Macramé Bracelets!!

 

 

Hiya guys!  Happy Sunday!  Hope you’ve all had a great week!

 

I thought that this week I would do a wee post on making macramé bracelets or friendship bracelets!  These little gems are easy and fun to make, and make funky and quirky arm decorations!

 

This easy technique of cord/string knotting can also be used for things other than bracelets!  You can see what I made using the macramé square knot in my ‘What you can do with leftover bits ‘n’ bobs!’ post, where I made wall hangings and wind chimes using this technique.

 

 

 

 

These are a few bracelets I made last year, before I started up my blog.  And, since I have come up with a few other ideas recently, I thought I’d do a post and show you all.  I did have to refresh my memory on how to do macramé and, as usual, I will show the link to the video at the end of the post.

 

I'm not going to go through all the steps in detail, as the video is pretty explanatory, but I will show you photos of the material I used and the end results of this DIY!

 

 

 

What I used:

 

·       A variety of bits ‘n’ bobs: beads, rings and studs.

 

 

 

·       Cord, or 100% cotton yarn in my case.  Jewellery cord is probably better for these kinds of bracelets though, but the yarn worked quite well.

 

 

 

·       A sewing needle, glue and a glue spreader.  The needle is needed to sew the ends of the yarn into the strap - PVA glue would probably be better for this just to keep the yarn from coming out of the strap then you wouldn’t really need a glue spreader. 

 

 

 

·       A ruler for measuring the yarn and masking tape to keep the bracelet secure while knotting. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Finished Bracelets!!

 

 

 

 

I more-or-less just followed the steps from the tutorial to make the bracelets.

 

 

 

 

The only thing I did differently was to make just one long strap for two of the bracelets and use some fabric studs to hook the stud onto the bead/ring, therefore creating a fastening.

 

 

 

  

 

 

Below, are two of the most common types of fastening for friendship bracelets - the adjustable strap with the charm/bead/design in the centre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like I said at the start of the post, these are the wee gems of the bracelet world!  Like the name says, you can make them for your fabulous pals!  For yourself too…you can all have matchy matchy ones!  Or, just make them for yourself if you want some quirky arm decorations!

 

I really love macramé!  I actually have this old watch with a broken strap and I think I might make a macramé strap for it…that’s an idea!!

 

Anyway guys, thank you SO SO much for reading!  I hope you enjoyed this post J and I will catch you all next Sunday!

 

Have a fab week and take care! Xxx

YouTube source:

 

DIY ♥ Adjustable Macrame Arm Party Bracelets! ♥ by Katrinaosity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJo4k7Tp1XQ

DIY idea: what you can do with leftover bits 'n' bobs!

 

Hiya guys!  Happy Sunday!

 

I thought for this week that I would do another post on leftover bits ’n’ bobs!  Like my post on ‘What you can do with leftover loombands’, it will be using mainly pieces of broken jewellery, random keys etc.

 

I originally thought of doing this when I was sorting through my jewellery box to see what I haven’t worn in ages, and found that quite a few pieces were broken and/or missing jewels.  I thought it would be a cool idea to try and do a wee DIY using those items.

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I decided I would make a wind chime/wall hanging piece!  I just used what I had in my craft supply box so I didn’t spend anything for this DIY.  Yaldi!  

 

So, I made three different wind chime/wall hangings using different materials and things.  The thing that all three have in common is that I used this technique called macramé - which is basically a type of decorative knotting, like in friendship bracelets!  You create the designs and patterns by tying knots in the string.  It’s really quite fun to do!   

 

I really just used basic macramé knots – the square knot and the horizontal double half stitch.  The links to the videos I looked at to do these knots are at the end of my post.   

 

Anyway, I created three designs which I will show you now…

 

 

 

Wind chime/wall hanging #1

 

 

 



What I used

 

-          One fat jumbo straw

-          Jute string

-          An elephant earring (that lost its other half)

-          Beads (off two broken necklaces)

 

 

Steps

 

1)     Firstly, I cut five pieces the string to the length I wanted for the piece.

 

2)     I started off putting strings onto the straw, and then used the horizontal double half stitch to create the top of the design (video source 2).

 

 

 

 

3)     I then used the simple square knot to put more design on the string (video source 1).

 

 

 

 

4)     I attached the elephant on the two middle strings.  I did this to make it the centre piece of the wind chime/wall hanging.

 

 

 

 

5)     Next, I used the circular beads and tied them onto the rest of the hanging strings.

  

 

 

Wind chime/wall hanging #2

 

 

 

 

 

What I used

 

-          One plastic tumbler rim (the rest wasn’t needed)

-          Fluorescent green string

-          Jute string

-          Beige thread

-          Embroidery thread (a red colour and a pink colour)

-          A feathery earring (that lost its other half)

-          A triangular earring (that lost its other half)

-          A set of round earrings (tarnishedL)

-          One ring for hanging the design

 

 

Steps

 

1)     Firstly, I cut the rim off the plastic tumbler, so I had a ring shape.

 

 

 

 

 

2)     I used the fluorescent green string and wound it around the ring to cover the plastic.  I then used super glue to attach the end string and cut off the excess when it was completely dry.

 

 

 

 

3)     Next, I used the jute string and cut 12 identical pieces to the length I needed.

 

4)     I attached the 12 pieces of jute string using a basic knot, making sure to space them out evenly around the ring.

 

 

 

 

5)     As the embroidery thread, when you buy it, comes in a set of six threads I had 12 pieces of thread in total.  I split the thread into pairs – three pairs of red and three pairs of pink – and cut them the same length as the jute string.  I then tied each pair on to the ring, evenly spaced around the ring, keeping them as close to the jute string as I could.  I really just wanted them in the design to give the jute string a little bit of colour.

 

6)     I then used the square knot again (video source 1), to get the detail in the string.  I made quite a few knots in this one that it ended up looking like a basketball net because of the circular top.

 

 

 

 

7)     Where the last knots I made were, I added a few more square knots on the same pieces of string (like friendship bracelets), just to have a difference in the design.

 

8)     After I finished the knots, I began putting on the details to the string – the feathers and the gold leaf designs.

 

9)     On three extra strings, I tied one earring to each and then joined the three strings together at the top.

 

10) Lastly, I finished the top detail of the wind chime/wall hanging (the bit that is attached to the ring used for hanging) by using the square knot as well.  And then using the detail in step 9, I attached it to the ring with some beige thread - I put this on the inside of the whole design so it would clink together amongst the feather and string outer detail.

 

 

 

 

  

 

Wind chime/wall hanging #3

 

 

 

 

What I used

 

-          One plastic tumbler rim (the rest wasn’t needed)

-          Jute string

-          Random keys

-          Beads (from a broken necklace)

 

 

Steps

 

1)     Like the second wind chime/wall hanging, I cut the rim off the plastic tumbler, so I had a ring shape.

 

2)     I used the jute string and cut 10 identical pieces to the length I needed.

 

3)     I attached the pieces of jute string to the ring shape, keeping them close together at the bottom.

 

 

 

 

4)     I then used the square knot again (video source 1) to get the detail in the string.  This time I created a triangular design onto the string.

 

5)     After I finished knotting the string, I then attached the details.  I didn’t have enough keys for each string, so to the free strings I added eight little wooden beads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That was all that really went into the making of the wind chimes/wall hangings!  It’s pretty simple, fun and creative to do…AND you can use anything you like really.

 

Well I hope you enjoyed this post!  Thanks for reading!! J

 

Have a fab week and take care! Xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YouTube video sources:

 

DIY Macrame: Square knot (left-facing) by Chatelaine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_9uwJRhIBc

 

DIY Macrame: Horizontal double half hitch by Chatelaine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3GCiZQT7Vs