How to make friendship bracelets with letters and numbers on them
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Before You Start
Before you start, you're going to need a few things:
- Embroidery Floss
- Scissors
- Tape
- A Home Made 'Loom'
Embroidery floss can be found at any craft store, so far I haven't been able to find it at Walmart or Target. Embroidery floss can come in packs, or you can buy separate skeins. The price for a pack is around 8 dollars and for a single skein it usually costs under a dollar.
While making this bracelet, you're going to have a lot of loose strings everywhere. and to avoid getting everything tangled and to make things a little easier I made myself a 'loom'. All you have to do is get a cardboard box and cut off one side of the box. On the top edge of the cardboard, cut one slit in the middle and make it about 1 inch long. On the bottom edge,(spread these out evenly) cut 11 slits about 1 inch long. Now you've got your very own loom, and you're ready to start. (:
Cutting Your String & Getting Started
First you're going to have to pick the colors you want. For your first name bracelet you should keep it simple until you feel comfortable with it. So pick two colors that you want your bracelet to be. One color will be the color of the letters/numbers, and the other will be the background color.
Once you pick your colors, you need to cut your string. Using the embroidery floss that will be the color of your letters/numbers, measure from your finger tips to your elbow. Once you do that, double it and cut that piece. Repeat this process until you have 5 pieces this length. (in my example, my letters will be yellow).Now take the embroidery floss that will be your background color and pull out some string from the skein.(in my example my background color will be green) You will be using this color the most, so you need plenty of it.
Now fold the 10 strings in half, and take your background color, and make a knot at the top. This knot will be used to tie your bracelet onto your wrist later.
Now put the knot into the top slit of your cardboard loom. You should have 11 strings total.
Place each string into a separate slit at the bottom of your cardboard loom, and make sure your background color string is in the slit all the way on the left.
Two Knots You MUST Learn.
You Must Learn These Two Knots
The link to the right will take you to another website that will give you step by step instructions on how to do a forward and backward knot.
you MUST learn these in order to make this bracelet.
Starting Your Bracelet.
When starting your bracelet, your gonna have to do a few rows to start out. This shapes the bracelet and makes it easier for you to see the letters. On average I start out by doing 5 rows of the background color.
To make a row, take your background color (green) and make a forward knot with the string to the right of it. After you make a forward knot on that string, put it in the slot to left of its original slot. This way you know what the next string is that you need to make a knot on. Then proceed to make forward knots on the rest of the strings. Once you get to the last string, you've made a row. Now take your background color and repeat the process, but this time going in the opposite direction and using the backward knot.
Repeat this process until you have completed about five rows.
How To Add The Letters
Now, it's time to add your letters.
In my example, my bracelet is going to say 'ABC 123'
This is going to seem complicated at first, but once you get the hang of it it's easy to do.
Below is a picture of the alphabet and numbers 1-9.
I'll show you how I made it easier on myself to learn.
Letters
Numbers
Drawing Out Your Desired Letter
To make it easier on myself, I draw out how its going to look. This helps me figure out whether or not to make a backward knot or a forward knot.
The letter on your bracelet will be placed horizontally. So to help me out, I draw my pictures sideways since that is how I see them as I make them on the loom. I'll show you an example, and I'll walk you through how I made my 'A'.
First, to draw out my A I got two different color markers and my little sketching notebook.
Looking at the picture of the A I started by drawing the first row on the left. The first row on the left is just another row of the background color. So all ten of my marks are blue. On the row next to it, There is one knot of the background color first, then 7 of the letter color, then two of the background color again.
On the third row, there are four knots of the background color, then one of the letter color, then three of the background color, one of the letter color, and then one of the background color. This row is repeated so you draw it again as your fourth line. And line five is the same as line two, so you just draw the same thing.
*drawing out your letters/numbers is not required. It's just something that can be useful.
Using Your Drawing To Make Your First Letter
Now take a look at your drawing, and focus on the top row.
Usually, when starting a letter, the top row is a full row of the background color. You can choose to skip this is you want to. I chose to skip it for now since we made five rows of our background color.
So your background color string should be all the way to the right. So to make my A, I need to make two backward knots with my background color string. Now, using the yellow string that is to the left of my background color string, I need to make a forward knot. (making the forward knot with the yellow string will make this knot yellow). I need to repeat this process seven times. and then I make a backward knot with my background color to complete the row.
For my second row, I need to use my background color to make four forward knots. Now using the yellow string to the right of my background color, I make one backward knot. Using my background color again, I make three forward knots. Now using the yellow string to the right of my background color, I need to make a backward knot. Then to finish the row, I use my background color to make a forward knot.
For my third row, I just make it match the second row. And for my fourth row, I make it match the first row.
After your first letter is finished, you should make two rows of your background color so that there is some space between your letters.
What To Do Next
Now you just repeat the steps for each of your letters.
Helpful Tips
- Make sure that you make your knots tight. But not too tight, embroidery floss can break, and it's a pain trying to work with short strings.
- Drawing out your letters WILL help you. I definitely recommend it.
- To tie off your bracelet, take all eleven strings and make one knot. (the same knot you used when you first started this bracelet, before you put it in the loom.) After you tie them off, split the eleven strings into two groups, and braid each group. now you can use these braids to tie on your bracelet.
- http://hbernb.atspace.com/ <--This is my 'go to' site. This site is extremely helpful.
- I also make and sell these bracelets. contact me for more info.
GOT QUESTIONS?
leave me a comment and I'll get back to you right away.
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CommentsLoading...
You should make a vid. It seems like it'd be a lot easier to understand that way. :)
Wow!I understood very well! This is perfect.THANK YOU. Videos would be even better but this was fine. Good job (:
i have been trying to find how to make my name for a while and thanks to u i found it
thanks alot! this is so helpful! the pictures really helped too
i wish you would give more specific lengths because everyones arms are not the same...
jennifer, it's difficult to give a specific length. the important thing is that you don't run out of thread.
Great instructions! Pictures are a big plus.
can u show us how 2 do other letters plz?
Wow! Great hub with lots of information!
I always found making friendship bracelets hard, though...
I'm new to Hub so I'm curious if there's any way to save this page? I saw that you can "View Comments You Posted" (pretty sure that's what it was called) so I'm leaving this comment so I can come back here. I love the information! Thanks!
to Sunny Conger,
you could also add this page to your bookmarks or favorites using your internet browser.
This was very helpful, although I'm still a bit confused about measuring your wrist :( I'm still a bit unsure about it..
Does anybody know how to make a $ in a braclet?!?!?!?
useful
Thanks this helped a lot!
To make a $ you do an S but make it smaller and then add in the line but it shows better when you do two lines. I just did it and it works
That looks complex to me but i think it could be worth it, thank you for the hub.
very nice article, i like it sooooooooo much. fantastics.
---------------
Starting a small business
help cant dont get it to confusing
wait i am confused how do u get the green to the other side when your working with the yelow but u need the green on the other side
uhmm...forward knot?? backward knot?... what???...
it says make 5 peices of yellow. where do you get 10 from??
What would you say is the maximum letters you can do in a bracelet?
how do you make the loop at the top?
great
thanks
Great hub!
thanks sooo much now i know what i'll make for my bff!!!
you are constantly working with the green string, it always moves with you. whether you are making a yellow not or green knot. you have 5 pieces of yellow string, and you fold them in half which makes 10, and thats how you get the loop at the top.
i have a question; can u put of picures of the drawings of other letters besides just the letter "A"?
uhh i cant do the rows i dont understand
the loom is very helpful
this is my first time and i wanted to make a bracelet with her name on it for my friend's birthday.
without this i wouldnt have been able to do that.
Thank you so much!
oh my god this was amazing thank you so much for your help!
I've been trying to do this and I will just have to try again! Thanks.
OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH!
the first few times I read through it,
I didn't understand, but eventually I did and I made a really awesome bracelet!
thanks :)
Very great power balance wristband you have here. As one blogger to another one, I know power balance bracelet how tough and how much time it requires to come up something great.power balance bands
wow.. this is intensive! Thanks so much. Love it.
This is good site but explain with more detail.My sister who is eleven did not get it till i came,read it and made it myself.Make it more simple for your younger readers. Also i was not happy when my sis told me that there was only the letter a tought. She does not even have the letter a in her name because her name is Jenny.plus you should also show how to make the harder letters like J,K,Z,Y,Q and W.So anyways i am kind of disipointed that this website did not work well because all my friends in high school tell me to tell my sister about this site. I wish I did not have to lie to my friends saying it actully worked for my sister because it did not. Anyways i sujest this website for 14 year olds and older because it would be to hard for anyone youngeer to understand! please try to change this site just a bit for your younger readers.Last but not least please make a video showing how to make all the alfabets.So everyone will know how to make there name. But for me anyways this was a great website because i am older an i understand a bit better.Thanks anyway. bye (8
love
nikki
This is so useful! Even a 10 year old can do this!
Galileo and
Peace Guy
The loom tip was very helpful, thank you.
this is the most helpful thing i have ever read on the internet on making these bracelets... thanks!
this is very helpful, except if you could put pictures like you did with the A with all the lines, that would be fantastic!
i am a bit confused on making the first row of a letter. how does the background colo get to the other side of the bracelet?
I am also confused, how does the green get to the other side with out making a knot with it.
Thanks for the great help! (:
thx XD it helped me alot on how to make a perfect valentines gift for my boyfriend
can you please please please help me in making something that says
"12.2.10.?"
Please ASAP please!
thanks(:
thnx!! this helped alot!! now i can make one without messing up:)
thnx so much this is a great website:)
what if i run out of backround string?
so helpful! thanks!!!
This was absolutley amazing! This was the first and ONLY site I looked at. I added this page as a favorite and will continue to use this in the future ;) thanks so much, and I dont think videos are needed....its pretty well said...
Omg i dunno what i would have done if i never found this site i found it simple to make the letters using the pictures you have up im making some bracelets for my cousins and friends :)
OK so i got up to the part where you do the five rows at the top after that everything was confusing!!!!!!
please make a video
also could you teach how to make more letters
@ spiderman if u run out of background string just tie some more string at the end of the last background string that's what i did
omg thank you so much i just made an R and it came out so perfect!!! :)
does this work with yarn too?
this was really helpful but i think a video might have been EVEN better. but its still really awesome. by the way, the makeshift loom? really great and helpful. THANKS FOR POSTING THIS (:
I am 12 and I found this hard to understand. When I tried it it didn't turn out very good. A video would help out SO much! I think this kind of bracelet is very cool!(:
The only reson this doesn't work for younger people and starters are because you don't know the more complex part of bracelet making. I'm 11 and I ahve been doing bracelets for 5 years. I know what all this stuff means. So what I say is that before you try this patteren do some more simpler bracelets like the double chain or candy strip then try this. I did it and it workede out perfectly.
what this made perfect sense until you got to the part where u came up with 11 strings ..... i used pink and purple so i folded em all in half got ten purple (for the back) and 2 pink what do i do with the extra what the heck!! also i thought we needed more of the background color i have more of the letter color
k so how do you add more string to your bracelet once your one piece of background color runs out......also do you put the other green background color along with the knowt (so not included in the rest of the bracelet)
i am 12 years old and i have made bracelets for 4 years now but this website is sooooo confusing i think a video would be more helpful please make 1
cheers
secret
i was trying to do it but its doesnt turn out right and im doing everything you said..... i dont know why
I'm trying to make the letter k. i am confused on how the back ground colour gets back to the left hand side while making the letter colour foward knots?. please help. also it would be useful for people for you to design a series of short videos on how to do each letter. the loom was a great usful idea
k thanks :)
that helped me alot! thanks! i hav been makeing friendship bracelets for a long time and i hav made the same ones for EVER! now i can make new ones for my friends thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:):):)
this is so AWESOME i am so glad i found hubpages :)
the loom is an awesome idea and sooo helpful. it looks hard but i am starting to understand! :))
This was really helpful! I tried making one of these w/o a loom and ended up giving up on it:( my friend showed me this and I found it helpful! The only problem is that you showed us all the letters on the bracelet instead of it on the paper. I can't really figure out how to make a 'J' w/o a cap! If you could post your letter patterns that would be great! Thanks so much;)
Ihad to make my green SUPER long for the bracelet but it came out GREAT
I just want to say that this website was really helpgul once I learned figured out how to do a letter it all went easy from there :)
Thanks :)
just figured it out and it is so easy to do the a but mabey could u do it with a diffrent letter please?
I am wondering how I could make like two words, each a different color. I want to do "Jet Life", Jet in black and Life in red. Suggestions?
This is great. I was having trouble drawing out the name on paper - it kept getting crooked. I printed off a piece a graph paper and just colored in the squares which made it much easier.
How far apart do you put the letters? And how long do you make the string? Thanks:) cool and awesome website!
WOW! this really did work I'm a little confused on the rest of the letter considering my name Has no ''a'' in it but i can akways count the single stiches in the example letters to make my drawing
Wow! It actually does work! I have a Awsomee bracelet that i have been trying to make forever and i diddn't know it could be SOOO simple! :D it took just 1 day and there it was amazing! haha
How Do You Skip The Yellow?? Would That Not Mess Up Your Bracelet At The Back???
Wow, thanks!
huh cool
This seems really cool! My cousin made these for all her friends,and my other cousin started making these. She was showing me this website and how to do them but I am still confused?
It helps if instead of drawing out the letters, making them in an excell page then printing them.
It helped so much,for me (which i'm a blonde) :)
I need the letter S. please show me a link that i can get to making it please!! :) THANKS!!
hey! i want to make a bracelet that says prom? help!
Thank you so much for these tips. I have been struggling to knot my name, but these tips are super easy to follow.
Aged 13
Your directions were very easy to follow, thanks. But I do have a question: when I do the letters, the knots aren't tight against the previous row; there's a little gap. How do I get the knots to stay tightly together like the background color does?
thanks this helped a ton
This was so helpful! Awesome job explaining. Thanks so much!
look pretty easy now !!
How many rows should be in between the letters? and by the way thanks so much :)
this is awesome!!
How do u do it so easily! How long does it usually take?
i want to make a FS bracelet
can you show ho to make letter s please
it IS REALLY VERY NICE
thanks soo much!! I just found the string i've been saving so I can make my Nanny's best friends granddaughter one of these! thanks
Thank you so much! You're really good at explanation! :)
thanks to you my best friend loves the bracelet i made for her your soooooooo awesome!!!
i still dont understand how you make the first 5 rows all green
would love to know where to buy these
Hey that was very helpful I am going to make bracelets with my freinds names on them for Christmas so this helped me learn how to do it but mabey making a video can help allittle more
Thx it's really useful! I'm going to a concert and want to put the band's name on a bracelet. SO HELPFUL! Thx!
I don't get it
If you are having trouble drawing out the letters, the instructions on this link are useless, but the letter diagrams at the bottom are basically the same as described here, hope this helps: http://www.billybear4kids.com/graduation/summer/fr
how do you end the bracelet?
you should show us how to do letters on a bracelet with only eight strings
i love this idea it really works good job
When you do the forward/ backward knot with the letter string, you are doing in across the background string so it moves over.
I would like to buy a bracelet, but your website gives me no help on the subject.
I tried to do this but i cant get the length og the background one because im trying to do the name K-Y-L-E and i need help!
Thanks this will help me with my buisiness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lololololol xD :P
SWEET
hi this didnt help me at all
Hello! This was really great. This was all I needed to try my first bracelet with letters. I jsut googled friendship bracelets with letters and this came up (: I found this last year at the end of August just as I was about to leave for a weekend trip. I took note of all of the letters so I would know how to do them all and When I came back from the weekend I had made myself my very own name bracelet (: Then I had friends left and right asking me to make one for them. It was pretty awesome, but I just wanted to drop by and say thanks. I added this page to my favorites so I wouldn't lose it... ya know... just in case. But anyways... THANK YOU!!
soooooo helpful!!! super glad, 'cause i couldnt find anything as helpful for my secret santa.... THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!! :)
This is so great and helpful! i just have one question, how do i get it so that the letter are tight? they wont knot like my background color and i can't figure out why. I'm doing it opposite and stuff too...
This is very helpful. I was just wondering if you knew how to do hearts, peace sigh and stuff like that.
Hey thank you so much for this post. It was really helpful and easy to understand unlike some of the videos i have watched on youtube.
I have a question. I know that the lengths will be different depending but how many letters do you think will fit on one bracelet? Just so i know what i want to put on mine. :) xx
WOW! thanks so much i've always wanted to know how to make these :)xx
This was OK but not great you know we have different arm length and its confusing you only tell us the letter "a" n show a video for the younger ones. I'm 15 and I've been making bracelets since I was 8 n this is confusing
I didn't know like it all......... It was confusing you shoulder showed a video
This was very useful I'm glad I found it thanx
this is comfuzing
I dont understand this. at all.
Y'all are dumb. This is EXTREMELY clear.
I wouldn't be calling people dumb
Makes sense!
I dont get the knots that you need to learn!!!! Can someone help me?!! Please!!
OMG this is like sooooo easy i cant believe u guys dont get it
way to easy!!!
How can you make a 9
Im so confused
This looks so well put together Ive been trying to learn how to do the letters but Ive failed so much i followed other people directions but it hasnt worked.:( so Im going to try this hopefully it goes well.
I am not even gonna try...looks to complicated :D LOL
im 11 and i dont get this at all its really confusing to me. how long do u cut the backround string??? i dont think that it says it
I think that this is going to work. I like the idea.
kk this is alot to read so i cant do this at all this will take like 4 hours to read
It will come in handy to me when I start trying it. Thanks Lindseyjo. And jazz, it won't take you 4 hours to read. It will only take you ten or twenty minutes to read.
im 11 and i get it because if you go soomerscamp.com.au a nd to art you will find it. it is easy.it won`t take a long time to do. it is fun .But if you want to give to a friend you had make it. bye
That was great!But I don't undertand how finish off the first row of letter "A",since my background color is to the right when I have to use it on the left.
what happens if you run out of string? is there a way to tie another to it and continue?
how do I do the letter S?
This is quite confusing.i couldn't make it,so obviously I had to either find another website(though this is the best one i found all week) or buy one if I needed one so badly.Luckily,I found a friendship bracelet kit at home.it's quite hard at first,but once you got the hang of it,you'll have it done in less than a hour.You could get it yourself,for a few dollars,or you could check out this website.Site below.
http://www.google.com.hk/search?sourceid=navclient
sorry,couldn't make it easy for you guys.hope you find it fun and helpful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This was a lot of help i made it no problem in fact i did 4 in a couple hours.
including LLAMA, HUEY, GIANTS, and LOVE! thanks so much!!!!:)
AWESOME!!!!!!!!
how do you make them with three colors?
I've looked all over for a way to put letters into bracelets and i finally found it! Thanks so much!!!
a bit confusing for a 5 year like me but i'll get the hang of it
Can u do the s cuz I don't know how to and the r ??? Plz!!!
Nvm but can I do the bracelet with less string or no????
ummmm... like if u happen to run out of string, do you like add the same color to it with a knot? or? Or do u just end the bracelet? Thanks! :D
Thx so much!!! This really helped. Now I can make bracelets for anyone that I want!!! :):)
Epic fail
Hahahahahahaha this didn't help at all I tried and tried and tried but it still didn't help:(:( maybe a video wood have helped but u no whatever ill try again later:):)
Worst bracelet ever
Thx!!!
I've seen better
hhmm.... I'll give it aa shot :)
WTF! THIS WASTED MY STRING!
I'm this wasted all of my string and it didn't even help me at all Thx though……:(:(
Fail
Yo wat up dude??
I think the average person who has written the first week of May and I am going out on Friday so that the information in the morning service supplied argument for you and me and I'll get the best in my opinion is going on here and now I'm not going anywhere else is there for an additional information on obtaining essence and the best for the weekend although they will have an interview and I think we can do to have to get your free trial download the free spots went out to you and me can you tell this is what you are interested please email or email me lead to the right as rest and I think I will not work with schools and then click on this list to see what happens if most important part is prohibited from you in my opinion and I have no problem if this doesn't apply the same thing with your views known for their front and center and then click here and we are in an attempt at all possible could you please tell me what you can get you the other night in my experience and expertise in your life as it was good to have to get your girlfriend some point this card to get the chance of winning anti spam and we have the best of my life in relation between two slices to be able do you have received from one person who sent to this message are not comfortable to the end I have just one more thing I have no money anyhow I have no problem on one is kind is it in its in join me and the best in my pigeon
love it! Really helpful! Ive been lookin for a long time and needed the individual pics of ech letter/number!Tnx so much! R u Helloh? Gotta go, Josh wants me.
Thx the loom really helped!!!! But I couldn't get how to do the word LOVE:(:( I messed up with all the letters except for L and E. I think u should put a video for all the letters and some of the numbers......just a suggestion.:):)thanks for your help!!
I COULDN'T DO THE LETTER A!!!!!!!!U DIDN'T REALLY GIVE SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS!!!!!!I'M REALLY MAD RITE NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:(:(:(:(:(:(
Hello can u make me one of those bracelets??
thx even though i dident try it but i would love to make one soon
Heey this really helped!!!!
I think that you should make a video and then put it on YouTube .I will try to make a friend ship bracelet and me and my friend avery will injoy it varyMuch.thanks vary much for teaching me and other Pepole in the world how to make a friend ship bracrcelil a geen thanks alot
much for teaching me to make a friend ship bracliites thanks alot
This made my engagement possible!!!
after you make the two backward knots with the background color, how do you get the green string to the other side?
Hi my name is _________!thanks so much for teaching me how to do this:):)i think that you should have done a video so it would be easier. So me and my friends are planning to make a video:):)Thx a lot!!!!!!!
Hello its ______ again. I was just joking about the whole me and my friends making a video so I don't have to worry!!!lol....Chao!!!!!
I have no doubt aware of this week so it is the most appearances by the way back when it comes top right now but I don't have an opportunity to make the times and the other side and it was really excited for this week is quite different ways of doing this and more specifically for your prayers or any of these are some of you have the option of entering his family are coming from Selwyn last time I was going through to the list that we will be the last two months ago in the future as sometimes I think it might be the last two months ago in the future as sometimes I think it might be the last two months ago in the future as sometimes I think it might be the last two months ago in the future as sometimes I think it might be the last two months ago in the future as sometimes I think it might be the last two months ago in the future as sometimes I think it might be the last two months ago in the future as sometimes I think it might be the last two months ago in the future as sometimes I think it might be the last two months ago in the future as sometimes the same way about the same thing to flag this post email me and my family are you off to again in your veins and the best for us to be able No doubt it will not receive future careers advice from this group of us are all about how you get your own public network marketing is the first one is not the only thing you should be fine with it if you want these things and then the fifth in touch!!!!:):)
Hey this helped alot but i got the right type of string but if i do one like it doesnt show up well enough so im doubling every line for the letters to make it stand out more. kinda like a bold effect in Microsoft word haha. Me and my Boyfriend are making bracelets for each other as we live on other sides of the country when he is not at college in New Jersey with me :)
THANK YOU SOOO MUCH I really love these bracelets and you did a great job of explaining it!! But now all my friends want me to make them one :/
hi,, i need your help very much so i cant figure out how to do this exactly i can do all kinds of bracelets like zigzag and trippy but this one is quite hard will you email me and explain it more? and mabe even send pics?? my email is ginger_snaps47@ymail.com
that is great
Will this work with yarn too? I know that if you use yarn with 5 rows it will = the with of like a 15 row bracelet.
Why can't you show how to do all the letters ughhhhh
I feel dumb but I can't make the letter R for the life of me it ends up as an H/A combo its just a mess ._.
I'd love to see a finished bracelet. And a vid tut. I'm kinda slow. lol
Hello, what am I supposed to do when the string runs out?
Deborah Demander Level 3 Commenter 22 months ago
Great hub. I found the pictures especially useful. I am more of a visual learner and am sometimes confused by written instructions.
Namaste.