Hey lovely readers! Summer is in full-swing, and what better way to enjoy it than with a little summertime reminiscing, am I right??
When I was as a girl in the hot hot 100+ day summers of the south, I loved spending my days playing in the pool, climbing trees, painting my fingernails, and making pretty braided bracelets with all my friends. Friendship bracelets were all the rage, remember? I must have made 485592696 keychains and anklets with hemp and embroidery thread between the ages of 10 and 13.
It's been a while since I've made hemp bracelets, but a few weeks ago I read a post on one of my favorite blogs, {yellow heart art}, and knew I had to jump back on that bracelet bandwagon! She and another blogger, {much love, illy}, decided to organize a summertime "arm party." This party involved bloggers signing up, getting partnered up, and making each other summer bracelets via care packages. Something like 150 people got back to their childhood roots, wove themselves some rockin' bling, and mailed it to someone else across the country.
Since this has been so fun, I decided to share the love and give you a tutorial of one of the bracelets I made. This particular knot I remember fondly as a child (some things stick with you forever) but I was happy to find instructions for the sliding closure knot (clever!) via {honestly, wtf}!
So without further ado.... let's begin your own arm party!
Supplies:
2 lengths of 30" embroidery thread
2 lengths of 20" embroidery thread
1 length of 10" embroidery thread
Scissors
Circular charm
Cut your pieces of embroidery thread to length. You'll need some kind of circular charm to be the center of your bracelet. The embroidery thread needs to form a knot around it, so the charm should be thin enough to accommodate this.
1. Fold your 20" piece of thread in half and loop it through the charm, making a knot. Do this with the other 20" piece on the other side.
2. Find the center of your 30" piece of thread and put it behind the 20" piece, making a backwards "4" with the left end overlapping the right end.
3. Tuck the left end under your 20" thread and through the loop of the "4" you created, completing the knot.
4. Pull the knot tight and slide to the top.
5. Now repeat steps 2-4, but backwards. Create your "4" on the left side this time, with the right end overlapping the left end of the thread.
6. Tuck the right end under the 20" thread and through the loop of your "4."
7. Pull knot tight.
8. Continue alternating knots down your embroidery thread in this fashion until you have a suitable length. It should wrap about half-way around your wrist. Remember that you need to leave room to make the sliding closure at the back.
Tie a double knot with your loose ends and trim the excess.
When you have finished your macrame knots, tape your charm to the table to hold the bracelet flat, then overlap the loose ends of your original 20" thread pieces (there should be four of them) and use your cut scraps to tie them in place.
With your remaining 10" piece of thread, find the center and loop it behind the back of your bracelet, creating the knot as in steps 2-8.
Repeat this knot several more times until you have a good sized closure (about 1/2" or so).
Tie a double knot with your loose ends and trim them off. Then try on your bracelet for size to make sure you can open and close it with enough "wiggle" room. Tie knots in the ends of your 20" pieces and trim off the ends.
Voila! Your very own macrame bracelets!
By the way, it's really hard to take pictures of your own wrist with a 50mm camera lens. There's just no graceful way to get your arm and your eye far enough away from each other to get your wrist in the photo. Awkwaaaard.