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About This Article

To make a charm bracelet, start with a piece of chain around 10 inches long, either one that you bought from a craft store, or recycled from an old necklace. Attach a sturdy jewelry clasp like a lobster claw to one end of the chain, then use pliers to attach circular wire “jump rings” to any charms or beads you want on your bracelet. Finally, attach the jump rings along the length of your chain, making sure all the charms are facing the same direction. To learn how to make an easy charm bracelet with yarn and safety pins, scroll down!

How to Make a Friendship Bracelet

Introduction: How to Make a Friendship Bracelet

Friendship bracelets are a great craft that you can take anywhere! They’re especially nice for people who have failed repeatedly at learning to knit and crochet. And as a bonus, I feel like learning how to make a friendship bracelet is one of those rites of passage you always do at summer camp, so this might just be like figuring out how to ride a bike again. 😀

You can make them as thick or thin as you like, and you can easily learn how to make a friendship bracelet in less than an hour. You’ll get quicker and quicker as you go, too!

Step 1: What You’ll Need:

Lion Brand yarn also has these tiny little skeins of yarn called Bonbons that are perfect. And lordy they are cute.

The tape or pins will keep the bracelet in place as you braid/knot the friendship bracelet. 🙂

Step 2: Measuring + Cutting

My wrists are right around 6 inches, so let’s just say measure your wrist and then multiply that by 5 to be safe. You don’t want to run out of floss after all that knotting and not be able to finish it. 🙂

If you’re going to be making a bracelet that is more than six strands it might be a good idea add another 6 inches, too! You’ll be making extra knots with every row, and therefore going through each color a little quicker.

Step 3: Determining the Number of Strands

Keep in mind that higher numbers of strands are harder to keep track of, and the bracelet can become a little warped with more strands, so you’ll need to block it (see the last step for info on how to do this!) if you want it to lay straight.

And depending on what you’d like your pattern to be, you can use two alternating colors, or every strand can be a different color. You can get lots of pretty patterns with very little effort!

I’ve included a picture of a six strand bracelet next to an eight strand bracelet so you can get a better idea. 😀

Step 4: How to Start the Bracelet

Begin the bracelet by taking your cut strands of embroidery floss and tying an overhand knot in one end.

Adhere this to a tabletop or your pants or a pillow and braid three inches down from this knot. Once you’ve finished your braid, make another overhand knot at the bottom of the braid.

And now we’ll get to the fun bit!

Step 5: Start the Knotting

The way you make the ridged, woven looking surface of a friendship bracelet is by making lots of small knots.

First you need to decide what order you want your strands to be in. This will determine the order of the color of your rows.

Step 6: How It’ll Look As You Go

I feel like this is a useful way to understand what you’re doing. 😀

As you can see, you’re just working your way across with whatever color is on the left, making two knots on each strand to the right. The color you’ve just finished carrying all the way to the right will always hang off to the side, which will help let you know when you’ve finished a row.

Step 7: How to Finish the Bracelet

Once you’ve got 3-4 inches worth of knotting done, you’re fine to finish up your bracelet.

Make another overhand knot right at the end of the main part of the bracelet. From that knot, braid three inches and then knot again.

Now cut off the extra floss/yarn from both ends of the bracelet. Now you’re done!

Step 8: Tie It On!

By braiding it the way we did, it’ll be super easy to tie/untie it. And you’ll be able to do it yourself. 😀

No more having to wear them into the shower and wandering around with wet bracelets for hours after! (I swear this is what always happened when I made them when I was younger, or when a friend made me one and tied it on. There was no taking them off. You either wore them, or cut them off and ruined them. :P)

Step 9: Additional Stuffs

If you’ve knotted your bracelet with a fury, it could cause it to curl up a bit. To help combat this, you can pin it/tape it to a flat surface. Make sure it’s pulled nice and taut.

Spray it with a good amount of water (soak it!) and let it dry like that. This is called «blocking» and it’ll help it lay nice and flat. 🙂

Please let me know if you have any questions or if anything is unclear in the comments below!

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60 Comments

well, finally in my 72nd year I may be able to do this bracelet. Always felt such a klutz when my primary school aged daughter (maybe 8 or 9 years old!) made these by the dozen! She tried to teach me then, but no go. You know,there are always some things in our lives that we want to achieve before we «leave». For me this is one of them. Plus your instructions are so clear. Thank you.

Reply 1 year ago

Aww, that’s incredible! It’s the same way for me to, my bestie could always make these but I couldn’t. I’m happy for you!

Question 2 years ago

Can you make this bracelet with 4 strands?

Answer 2 years ago

Reply 2 years ago

What about three. or five?

Aww super pretty bracelet

That was really helpful. Nice job.

These are beautiful! I love them!

I luv your attention to detail, easy peasy! The pins anchoring the project are a life saver!

Wow thank you now i no how to make a Friendship Bracelet 😀

Question 4 years ago on Step 2

If i wanted to make a longer necklace, how should i measure that?

I was cleaning out my old room I made in the basement in high school and threw out some of the bead making (I kept the choker jig for some reason), bracelet and craft stuff. There was a period where I had to learn every hobby and craft, including what the ladies were doing (there were a few experiments I didn’t try for sure that are just for the girls).

Reply 4 years ago

Seems like I’d use a thumb tack for these style bracelets or tie to something and jam in the desk since I’d make in class sometimes. I forget what age range. like junior high maybe?

Reply 4 years ago

Basement leaking over the years. though when Dad had chemo & radiation that ultimately murdered him and I wasn’t there to clean the eaves troughs, vacuum and maintain the dehumidifier. the basement started growing things. Plus blow outs from the stoma sack that weren’t disinfected or cleaned extremely well.

Once Mom moved out, I came down to clean where after running ozone for a few weeks to months got the odor under control and most likely halted growth so whomever came over didn’t smell until a washing or two. The smell lingered in my beard until I washed it a few times also. I still want to do a chlorine dioxide/chlorine final detox to kill off spores and eggs if any are left. Was thinking maybe peracetic acid hydrogen peroxide. though I will be etching the basement walls again to seal this time with a epoxy or at least oil based sealant. so muratic acid will be used for sure. Might pull a vacuum on the whole house also just to make sure good absorption.

Yeah, is hard for me to throw things out also and not donate. Actually, I came down to having a bunch of my stuff already thrown out when my other siblings took a stab at cleaning out. They were going to pitch everything and I negotiated to give me a year or more to work on and maybe I’d even just buy the house.

For the girls is more their gender type stuff that is a no go for Protestants for sure and not best talked about on instructables. I tried most my Grandmothers crafts too in her craft shop. not just the Grandpa’s workshops and my Dad even was the person who taught me maintenance (he was an industrial master mechanic) and how to crochet.

How to Make a 4 Strand Braided Bracelet

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Jessica Gibson. Jessica Gibson is a Writer and Editor who’s been with wikiHow since 2014. After completing a year of art studies at the Emily Carr University in Vancouver, she graduated from Columbia College with a BA in History. Jessica also completed an MA in History from The University of Oregon in 2013.

There are 11 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.

The wikiHow Video Team also followed the article’s instructions and verified that they work.

This article has been viewed 646,949 times.

If you’ve mastered a basic 3-strand braid and want a bit of a challenge, add an extra strand! Once you get the hang of working with 4 strands of yarn, ribbon, or leather, you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to create a complex-looking braid. Make a flat or round 4-strand braid in several colors and then wrap it around your wrist to make a completely unique bracelet.

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It may be easier to learn to braid with at least 2 different colors. Once you become more familiar with making 4-strand braids, you could use just 1 color.

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Tip: Consider using at least 2 different colors when you’re starting out. This will allow you to easily see which strands you’re working with.

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