Showing posts with label macrame. Show all posts
Showing posts with label macrame. Show all posts
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Making friendship bracelets with swarovski elements
Friday, April 4, 2014
dyeing rope for crafting
In the spring and summer, I try to put down my knitting for a while and work on a few warm weather projects. Rope is one of my favorite materials because it is cheap and readily available at the hardware store, even in bright colors.
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| clothesline dyed with blue food coloring and neon yellow acid dye |
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Neon Friendship Belt
Last week, I mentioned a few ideas about how to bring the summer trend of friendship or camp bracelets into the colder months. You may remember in particular a swatch of neon para cord material that turned out well. It was made out of the stuff that those safety bracelets are made of, just a lot more of it.
To make a neon paracord friendship bracelet belt, you will need:
3 colors of paracord long enough to make a belt (read on to find that number)
scissors
fire
knowledge of how to make a six strand friendship bracelet, it does not need to be this pattern if you prefer another.
I ordered my cord from an online supplier from etsy, you'll have to do your own search because different suppliers carry different colors. I chose to get 50' of each: black, yellow/green neon mix, and pink/blue neon mix.
Not knowing how much cord was needed to make my belt, I decided to make a swatch. If you are looking to use the same pattern as in the photos, but have never made a friendship bracelet, this will help you. Your cord may be different than mine, so I suggest doing one of your own, especially if you will be doing a different pattern.
Tie off your cords a yard from the ends and put the long centers aside (shown above). Work a few repititions of your pattern, the more the better, and make sure to work the whole pattern ( for example the full black, pink, green, not just stopping after black).
My swatch happened to make a good bracelet. Anyway, measure the length of the knotted section and take your hip or waist measurement where you would like to wear the belt. Divide your body measurement by the length of your swatch, remember this number.
Measure the leftover tails that were not used in your swatch and subtract from 36". Multiply this number by the number that you were supposed to remember. You now know how many inches long your strings need to be to make a belt, but before you cut anything, remember that you will be folding the strings in half. in stead of making 6 strings of the length you just calculated, cut 3 that are double that.
My 3 strings were 25 feet long, 12.5 feet once folded in half. it is important to fold the strings because this will help to create a clean and neat loop. I cut my strings frim the full ropes after unfolding the swatch.
I used a braided loop explained in detail in the Fleece Tug Toy tutorial. Basically, you need to fnd the center of the three strings, make a two inch braid, and begin your macrame with the strings on either side of the central braid. It will really help to read it and look at the pictures.
You can see how the braided loop looks in this context. The first two rows of chevrons have been completed as well.
... a few hours later. This is the length I desire and is essentially done.
Measure about one foot from the end of your knots and cut the extra string.
Burn the ends to keep them from unraveling.
Tie it on and you are ready to wear.
To make a neon paracord friendship bracelet belt, you will need:
3 colors of paracord long enough to make a belt (read on to find that number)
scissors
fire
knowledge of how to make a six strand friendship bracelet, it does not need to be this pattern if you prefer another.
I ordered my cord from an online supplier from etsy, you'll have to do your own search because different suppliers carry different colors. I chose to get 50' of each: black, yellow/green neon mix, and pink/blue neon mix.
Not knowing how much cord was needed to make my belt, I decided to make a swatch. If you are looking to use the same pattern as in the photos, but have never made a friendship bracelet, this will help you. Your cord may be different than mine, so I suggest doing one of your own, especially if you will be doing a different pattern.
Tie off your cords a yard from the ends and put the long centers aside (shown above). Work a few repititions of your pattern, the more the better, and make sure to work the whole pattern ( for example the full black, pink, green, not just stopping after black).
My swatch happened to make a good bracelet. Anyway, measure the length of the knotted section and take your hip or waist measurement where you would like to wear the belt. Divide your body measurement by the length of your swatch, remember this number.
Measure the leftover tails that were not used in your swatch and subtract from 36". Multiply this number by the number that you were supposed to remember. You now know how many inches long your strings need to be to make a belt, but before you cut anything, remember that you will be folding the strings in half. in stead of making 6 strings of the length you just calculated, cut 3 that are double that.
My 3 strings were 25 feet long, 12.5 feet once folded in half. it is important to fold the strings because this will help to create a clean and neat loop. I cut my strings frim the full ropes after unfolding the swatch.
I used a braided loop explained in detail in the Fleece Tug Toy tutorial. Basically, you need to fnd the center of the three strings, make a two inch braid, and begin your macrame with the strings on either side of the central braid. It will really help to read it and look at the pictures.
You can see how the braided loop looks in this context. The first two rows of chevrons have been completed as well.
... a few hours later. This is the length I desire and is essentially done.
Measure about one foot from the end of your knots and cut the extra string.
Tie it on and you are ready to wear.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Fall ideation: friendship bracelets
Friendship bracelets are one of the biggest trends of summer, but they don't really fit too well into the cold weather of fall and winter. It's something about how they just look better with short sleeves in the bright sunlight. I have been making a lot of bracelets lately and do not want to give up the geometric colorful patterns as soon as sweater weather starts. Here is a picture of a few of the things I have been working on:
The first two on the left are traditional embroidery floss bracelets. The middle one is paracord in fluorescent colors. The fourth is Red Heart Super Saver yarn - the super cheap stuff - and the one on the right is Lion Brand Thick and Quick.
The two styles made from yarn are a little harder to make than the one s made of non stretchy materials. an embroidery floss bracelet is more even and stiff than one of yarn. The red heart taught me a bit about how to tie better knots in yarn.
Note that after the central brown diamond, the width decreases by about .25 inches and the knots look more precise and even. this is where I started to make the knots very tight. This helped a lot to improve the texture and to make future projects (belts) doable.
I'm gearing up to begin work on these this evening on the train. hope you can see how these patterns are starting to transition into cool weather crafts.
The two styles made from yarn are a little harder to make than the one s made of non stretchy materials. an embroidery floss bracelet is more even and stiff than one of yarn. The red heart taught me a bit about how to tie better knots in yarn.
I'm gearing up to begin work on these this evening on the train. hope you can see how these patterns are starting to transition into cool weather crafts.
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