How to make friendship bracelets
We're showcasing 3 techniques for how to make friendship bracelets, so choose your favourite and get making
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There is something very special about wearing a token made by a good friend. It’s like having a little bit of your friend with you all the time. Made in your choice of wool or thread, friendship bracelets are our favourite token like this. We can’t get enough of crafting them in different styles and colours. Even if you’ve never crafted before, it is easy to do with our video guides. We’ve got 3 great methods here – classic chevron, woven jellyfish bracelets or cross stitch bracelets. If you want more ideas, check out Gathered’s free crochet friendship bracelet patterns
It’s hard to beat the classic knotted DIY friendship bracelet. But if you like cross stitch, you could make a cross stitch bracelet, too. Both of these friendship bracelets use the same thread, so you can mix and match between the styles. The cross stitch bracelets are designed by Durene Jones and were published in Cross Stitch Crazy issue 191. Scroll down to find the cross stitch bracelet pattern or click the link below to jump straight there. You can also craft a chunky bracelet using our finger knitting for kids tutorial if you want more ideas!
Or how about you try weaving a bracelet instead? These cool jellyfish bracelets are woven on a cardboard circle in wool or thread. They make fantastic friendship bracelets. They are super simple to make with our video guide. However you choose to make your friendship bracelets, we hope they bring colour and fun. We hope your friends like them and that they all make one for you, too. For more kids projects check out our craft ideas for kids and our paper crafts for kids round up. Or why not decorate your friendship bracelet with a special charm made using our how to make shrinky dinks tutorial?
Click on the links below to jump straight to the different ways to make friendship bracelets, or browse our entire tutorial to expand your thread bracelet DIY skills to the max!
How to make friendship bracelets
How to make friendship bracelets
How to make friendship bracelets video
If you want to follow along with our how to make friendship bracelets video, you can knot along with us! But if you prefer written instructions with photographs, we have those for you too – just scroll down to find them.
How to make friendship bracelets: Materials
- DMC stranded cotton – Buy from LoveCrafts
- Scissors
- Wooden button
- Safety pin
You Will Need
- DMC stranded cotton
- Scissors
- Wooden button
- Safety pin
Step 1
Take the outside thread on the right side (yellow for us) and loop it round the thread next to it. Then tuck the end through the loop. Keeping the second thread taut, pull the outside thread loop so it slides up the thread to the top. Do the same thing again, so you have made two knots in the outside thread.
Step 2
Pick up the next thread along and hold it nice and taut. Use the same knotting thread as you did for step 1 (that’s yellow for us). Loop it round the taut thread and tuck the end through the loop. Pull the thread so the loop slides up the taut thread to the top. Do a second knot just like this.
Step 3
Pick up the next thread along and hold it nice and taut. Use the same knotting thread as you did for step 1 and 2 (that’s yellow for us). Loop it round the taut thread and tuck the end through the loop. Pull the thread so the loop slides up the taut thread to the top. Do a second knot just like this.
Step 4
Leave the thread you have been knotting with (yellow for us) in the centre. Pick up the outside thread on the left hand side. This should be the same colour as the one you have been knotting with on the right hand side!
Hold the thread next to it taut and loop the knotting thread round it. Pull the end through the loop. Keeping the second thread taut, pull the outside thread loop so it slides up the thread to the top. Do the same thing again, so you have made two knots in the outside thread.
Step 5
Pick up the next thread along and hold it nice and taut. Using the same knotting thread as you did for step 4 (that’s yellow for us), loop it round the taut thread and tuck the end through the loop. Pull the thread so the loop slides up the taut thread to the top. Do a second knot just like this.
Step 6
Pick up the next thread along and hold it nice and taut. Using the same knotting thread as you did for step 4 and 5 (that’s yellow for us), loop it round the taut thread and tuck the end through the loop. Pull the thread so the loop slides up the taut thread to the top. Do a second knot just like this.
Step 7
You have now made two knots on three threads on each side of your friendship bracelet. Both knotting threads are now in the middle of the friendship bracelet. You want to swap them, so that the thread that was on the right-hand side is now on the left-hand side, and the thread that was on the left-hand side is now on the right-hand side.
No need to make any knots. Just pass one thread over the other so they are on different sides.
Now you go back to step 1 and start knotting again in the new colour that is now on the outside edge of your friendship bracelet.
You can repeat steps 1-8 as many times as you need to to create a friendship bracelet the right length for you and your friends.
How to weave a bracelet
Want to expand your friendship bracelet skills? We think this How to weave a bracelet tutorial could be just what you are looking for. Using just a simple circle loom made from a bit of scrap cardboard, you can learn how to weave a bracelet in minutes with our easy tutorial. Essentially you are making a bracelet out of a cardboard circle loom with wools or yarn! This style of friendship bracelet is sometimes called a jellyfish bracelet.
Step 1
Start by drawing our your circle loom on a bit of scrap cardboard. You can draw around something round like a jar lid if you need to. Draw a line at the top, bottom and two sides of the circle. If this was a clock face, these lines would be at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock. Then draw 4 more lines in between these, so you have a loom drawn out like in the above picture.
Step 2
Now cut around the circle and make some small snips into the lines to make small notches. It’s best to keep the notches small, as if you snip too far into the cardboard with the scissors it can make your loom a bit floppy and hard to handle. Make a hole in the middle for your threads to go through
Step 3
Cut 7 pieces of thread, each about 60cm long. They can be any colour you like and you can use the same colour more than once in your DIY thread bracelet if you like. Thread the 7 strands through the centre hole of your loom and secure them at the back with a knot. Put each stand of thread into a different notch on your loom – 1 of the notches will stay empty.
Step 4
Now we start weaving the friendship bracelet. Put the empty notch at the top, count three notches round and pick up the thread from that notch. Move the thread up to the empty notch at the top. Now the notch where the thread was before is the empty notch. Move it up to the top, count three notches round and pick up the thread from that notch. Move the thread up to the empty notch at the top. Now the notch where the thread was before is the empty notch. You get the idea – keep repeating this process over and over again.
Step 5
Pull on the knot at the back of the work to keep the threads taut at the front and pull your growing friendship bracelet down through the hole at the back. It’s looking great! Keep on weaving your friendship bracelet by moving the empty notch to the top, picking up the thread 3 notches round and moving this to the empty notch at the top.
Step 6
Once your friendship bracelet is a long as you want it to be, slip the threads from out of the notches and pull the bracelet off the cardboard circle. Tie a knot in the end, tie the two ends together to make a loop and then snip off the long threads. There you go – you’ve learnt how to weave a bracelet! You can see the process in action in our How to weave a bracelet video too.
How to weave a bracelet video
Cross stitch bracelets
Whether you are an experienced cross stitcher, or are trying out cross stitch for the first time, these cross stitch bracelets are simple to stitch and make great friendship bracelets for kids to try out. If you’d like some guidelines on how to cross stitch, check out our cross stitch for beginners article.
Easy to personalise, fun to stitch and great to give, kids will love these colourful friendship bands! We’ve found a fantastic way to get children cross stitching, and keep them occupied over the summer. Friendship bracelets have always been in fashion, especially with young girls, and they’ll love stitching these bold, vibrant designs to give as inexpensive gifts to their pals. Pick just one pattern to stitch in everyone’s favourite colours, or stitch different designs in the same thread shades so others can easily tell they’re BFFs! Once stitched, follow our simple instructions explaining how to make friendship bracelets from your cross stitching in no time at all.
Click to download the cross stitch bracelets pattern.
The download in an A4 PDF with 4 friendship bracelet cross stitch pattern and an accompanying key. These were designed by Durene Jones. To see more of Durene’s designs, take a look at our Durene Jones cross stitch fox pattern, or visit her online Etsy store.
How to make friendship bracelets from your cross stitch
- Add the interfacing to the reverse of your stitched design following the manufacturer’s instructions, then trim the excess fabric around the edge, leaving a one square border all round the edge of your friendship bracelet design.
- Cut a piece of self-adhesive felt to the same size as your friendship bracelet and put to one side.
- Tie the ends of your cord together using a slipknot so the friendship bracelet can be made bigger or smaller, then flatten and secure either end of the loop to the inside of the bracelet with a few stitches.
- Attach the felt to the inside of the bracelet – and you’re finished!
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning how to make friendship bracelets! You could also try our free friendship bracelet crochet pattern or our free festive friendship bracelet pattern. For more crafty ideas head to our free daily craft patterns and find over 100 new projects.
Authors
Hannah has worked on Gathered for 3 years, since our launch in 2019. At school Hannah learned to knit collaborating on dorcas blankets – now she edits our knitting section. She inherited her love of stitching and embroidery from her talented grandmother, and her passion for thread led her to be Editor of The World of Cross Stitching for six years. Card making is a more recent passion, developing from her position as editor of Cross Stitch Card Shop. She loves using kinetic techniques to make cards that move – she was editor of Papercraft inspirations magazine for over four years, creating loads of card making video tutorials at www.youtube.com/PapercraftTV.
