I love making friendship bracelets. They’re fun, cheap, and once you learn how, they’re easy to make. Now, I don’t make my bracelets the classic way. With the classic bracelet, once it’s tied, the only way to cut it off is with scissors. Honestly, I like changing my bracelets, so making them removable and reusable is a must. So, on either side of the bracelet, I make a single braid, and then tie the braids together with a macrame knot, making the bracelet adjustable and removable. This makes your bracelets much more affordable, too, since you aren’t wearing them once, then cutting them off.

To start, you’ll need cotton embroidery string, which you can find at the craft store like Hobby Lobby or Joann Fabrics, and at some grocery stores like Walmart. I also use a clipboard to secure my bracelet, but you could just as easily tape the top knot to your worktable. I always start by making my strands about 36-40 inches long. 36 inches does the trick for me. Also, you get to decide how many strands and what colors of string you want to use. The more strands you have, the wider the bracelet will be, and the longer it will take to make it. My favorite width is 8-10 strands.

So, after you’ve cut all the strands, line them up and tie them together with a simple knot.

Next you’ll divide the strings into three sections. With this, try to divide them into roughly the order you want you colors. So, say you have orange and blue strings. You’ve got six orange and four blue, and you want the stripes in the bracelet to be such that it goes three orange rows, two blue rows, three orange rows, two blue rows. So, try to divide the strings for the first braid so that they’ll roughly be in that pattern.
For the braid, I do about 3 inches of a basic 3-strand braid.

To finish it, I knot two of the chunks together to finish it.

Now, you get to start the actual friendship bracelet section. Separate all the strings in the order you desire.

Take your first string and make a four knot twice on every string, until you get to the end of that row. Do this with every string, until you get the length you need to wrap around your wrist.

The first step for the four knot is to take the string on the far left and cross it over the string next to it.

Then, you’ll curl the string under the second string.

Grab your first string and pull it tight with an upward motion, not pulling with the second string.

Do this twice with each string, until the string you’re tying with becomes the last string.

At the end, tie a knot.

Then, braid another 3 inch length and tie a knot at the end.

Like I told you at the beginning, we’re making a bracelet that you can take on and off. To do that, we need to do a macrame knot.

First, clip your two braids together with the clipboard.

So, take a piece of your string and tie your two end braids together.

Now, take one end of the string and lay it over the braids.

Take the second end of the string, drape it over the first string.

Wrap the second string under the braids.

Pull the end of the second string through the loop that the first string made, then pull tight.

Do this about 5-8 times, then knot the strings, cutting off the spare.

And viola! Enjoy!