I’ve been futzing around with the old camp craft friendship bracelet lately.  I wanted to figure out a way to make it a little more grown up, since I think they are super cute.

I decided to add some beads to the bracelet, and it took some time to figure out the best way to accomplish that.  I definitely wanted them embedded into the bracelet, which proved slightly harder than you might think.  But I think I came up with a good solution.

The problem with friendship bracelets as an adult concept is that you usually just tie them on, which means you pretty much wear them all the time, in the shower, in the pool, yadda yadda, and they get grungy.  And then you have to cut them off and you can’t wear them again.  So I also wanted a clasp of some sort, but something more than just a knot in a hole.

I completed my design, and now, I made my first video tutorial!

It’s kind of long, y’all, but my process has a few steps, and I wanted to be clear.  Hopefully it’ll be helpful to someone!

Here’s a list of materials if you want to make the project:

  • 4 colors of embroidery thread
  • 1 button
  • 80 seed beads in two colors to match your thread
  • beading needle
  • regular needle
  • scissors
  • tape
Here’s the vid.  If you happen to watch any of its fourteen minutes, let me know if you have suggestions for improving.  Besides making videos shorter.
Enjoy!

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  • July 27, 2011, 11:59 am Kathy

    Ooh, I like this one — especially the sheen of the beads! This is a nicely dressed up version of the kid-craft version.

    I wonder what this would look like with several shades of one color, and a bit more arbitrary bead placement (maybe with a couple of different kinds of small beads in addition to the seed beads).

    I didn’t find the video length problematic, BTW. It may be because the thoroughness seems helpful more than anything else, or it may be because I’m in love with your nail polish color. Or both. Probably both.

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  • July 27, 2011, 12:13 pm Beth

    Thanks! I felt like the video should’ve been about 5 minutes long, so when it was approaching 15 I was panicking.

    I like your arbitrary idea. Do you mean putting them not at even intervals? Like, a line of beads after 2 stripes, and then after 3 stripes, and then after 1?

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    • July 31, 2011, 9:26 am Kathy

      Maybe not even lines of beads — maybe random beads dotting the bracelet high on one stripe, low on another a few rows down, near the middle of yet another row. I just think that a really random version (stripes of varying sizes with beads of different sizes, randomly placed) would look really different from this structured version. But I dig the more regularized, even look of the stripes/beads!

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  • November 25, 2011, 10:22 pm Aspen

    I LOVE the button! I remember when they were tied on and being SO sad when they fell off to be lost among the loveliness that is childhood. Much better idea!!

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