I’ve got a new tutorial for you for these kind of lacey macrame bracelets. As always, they are infinitely customizable and they go great with red wine.

The two bracelets I’ve made here use not only different colors, but slightly different size cords. You can see how the thickness of the cord will dictate the size of the bracelet and how delicate it might look. Depending on how tightly you weave your knots, you can achieve different looks as well. More on that in a bit!

Here’s what you need for this project (and note, the hyperlinks in the supplies list will take you to the suppliers I use):

1. 20″ length of 550 paracord in your choice of color (This is the thicker cord, and will form the long edges of your bracelet. I’ve used black.)
2. 3 1/3 yards of 1.5mm or 2 mm Korean knotting cord (the light blue bracelet is 1.5mm; the orange is 2mm)
3. a button of your choice for the clasp (a button with a shank is easiest)
4. scissors, a small clipboard, and a lighter for burning the ends of the paracord, and, not pictured: a binder clip

Let’s get started!

Cut your length of paracord and burn the ends to prevent fraying. If you are unsure how to do this, check out my post here for instructions. Cut your Korean cord as well; you don’t need to burn the ends of this cord.

Start by setting up your cords. Fold the paracord in half and secure the folded end under the clip of the clipboard. Pull the strings taut and secure the cut ends to the bottom of the clipboard with a binder clip, as seen here in another project:

Now, you’ll find the center of your Korean cord and lay the center point over the paracord, towards the top.

Now, bring the end of the left Korean cord, which I will refer to as your working cord, under the left paracord, and the right under the right.

Now, bring the ends of the working cords straight down.

Bring each of the working cords underneath the paracords, like so:

Now, bring the left working cord over the paracord and under itself, as pictured below. Do the same on the right side, bringing the working cord over the paracord and under itself.

This is your initial knot. Tighten it up and you are ready to start knotting in earnest.

Now, you’ll notice above that the working cords naturally want to switch sides. That’s good, because that’s exactly what you want. In my example, you’ll see that the right cord is laying over the top of the left cord. You can switch this so that the let cord lays over the right, but the important thing is that you are consistent: every time you start a new knot, make sure that the cords are laying the same as the previous knot (so if you start with the right laying over the left, make sure you always have the right laying over the left).

We’ll start on the left side. Take the cord that is coming from the right, which will be your left working cord, and bring it straight down in between the two paracords. Then, cross it over the left paracord, bring it up and under the left paracord, and over itself. I got into a rhythm where I’d tell myself, over… under… over. Tighten up this first half of the knot.

Now you need to complete this knot. Using the same cord, come straight down through the two paracords, and this time go under the left paracord, back around and over the left paracord, and under itself. For this half, I tell myself under… over… under.

You can get into a good rhythm here by telling yourself for each full knot, you first go over, under, over, and then under, over, under.

Tighten it up, and you’ve finished your first left-side knot.

Now you need to do the right side. Move the working cord you just used out of the way. Start by bringing the other working cord, coming from the left, which will now be your right working cord, and bring it over the right paracord. Now, bring the working cord under the paracord towards the center, up and over the right paracord, and under itself. Under, over, under. 

Tighten it up. Now, bring the working cord straight down between the two paracords, under the right paracord from the inside to outside, up and over the right paracord, and under itself.

On this side, the rhythm is slightly different because you aren’t switching the over/under, you are switching from going from the inside to the outside and vice versa. So you are always going under, over, under, you are simply starting from the outside and then coming from the inside.

Tighten up this knot, and you will have completed your first cycle of knots.

Notice here that to begin my next cycle, I will need to bring the left cord OVER the right cord to be consistent with how the knots begin.

Continue knotting and measuring the bracelet on your wrist until you reach a desirable length. Then it’s time to finish off the bracelet.

Take each working cord and wrap them a few times around the paracords, tying them in the middle.

Now, thread the working cords through your button and tie them a few times.

Cut the ends off of the cords. You can add a little glue to the ends if you are worried that they will untie themselves. At this point, you will also want to cut off the excess paracord and burn the ends. Make sure you cut them so that they are hidden beneath your button.

There you go!

Now, by changing up colors, the size of your cords, and the tightness with which you knot, you will get very different looking bracelets. For the orange bracelet, I used a 2mm Korean cord, and I didn’t pull my knots as tightly, so there’s more openness in the look. To knot less tightly, you will want to start, with your very first knot, by leaving some distance between the two paracords, and continuing only to tighten to this distance throughout your entire knotting.

Hope you enjoyed! Let me know if you have any questions, and if you make any I’d love to see pics!

Here’s another matching bracelet I made with the hanger strings (we still don’t have a good name for those, people) from a shirt. You’ll remember this one, with the three metal disks; I’ve done something slightly different here with some coiling and a metal ring. Come see!

To make this bracelet, you’ll need:

1. a shirt or dress with hanger strings
2. the ribbons from your shirt, cut out
3. a metal ring or oval, like this or this or this
   
4. 18 or 20 gauge wire
5. clasp, split jump ring, and 2 foldover cord end caps
6. jewelry cement, or another strong glue (optional)
7. jewelry pliers

To start, you need to make the coils that will sit on either side of the ring. Take a wooden skewer, a small crochet hook or knitting needle, or any thin rod you can find to use to wrap your coil. Using the wire, wrap it tightly around the skewer about 6 times, leaving a 1 – 2″ tail on each end.

Slide the coil off of the stick. Bend one of the tails 90º from the coil and wrap it once or twice around your ring.

Repeat this process, attaching another coil on the other side of your ring.

Feed one of your ribbons through the center of the ring.

You will now send each end of the ribbon through the coil, so that the folded part of the ribbon sits over the wire attaching the coil to the ring.

Pull it tightly through, so the ribbon sits flush on the ring. Repeat the same process on the other side.

Now trim your coil and use your pliers to bend the tail in, leaving no rough edge.

Attach a clasp and a jump ring to the ends of the ribbons with a foldover end cap following the instructions in my last post. The only difference here is that you will have two ribbon ends in each end cap.

And you’re done! Now you have a perfectly matching bracelet.

Hope you enjoyed!

This idea originally came out of my hoarding instincts. I bought a few new shirts, and they had those straps on the inside shoulders that you use to keep the shirt on the hanger. By the by, did you know those little strings have no proper name? I think we might need to come up with one and see if we can get it going around the web. Know your meme!

Also, I read once that when you bring a garment with said strings (hanger loops? security straps? shoulder strings?) home, you are supposed to cut them off. Apparently they are really for store display, and since they often end up showing when you wear the garment, it’s advised that you remove them.

I cut a bunch of them out some time ago, and they were made from satin ribbon. And I thought, “ah, they’re quite pretty, and they perfectly match my shirt(s). Shame to throw them out!”

Thus was born the idea: use them to create a perfectly-matched accessory. I decided to go with bracelet, since the ribbons weren’t all that long and it’s pretty simple to make a bracelet.

I’ve come up with several ideas that I’ll be showing you over the next few days. So come along and, if you have some garment ribbons laying around, consider making yourself a matching bracelet. Unless your apparel harness is made out of plastic, in which case, go on ahead and throw that puppy out.

Here’s what you’ll need to make this first one I came up with:

1. a shirt or dress with clothing cords
2. the ribbons from your shirt, cut out
3. a beading needle
4. several small metal discs, with 2 holes on each side, like these or these
5. clasp, split jump ring, and 2 foldover cord end caps
6. jewelry cement, or another strong glue (optional)
7. jewelry pliers

To start, thread your beading needle onto one of your strings. You’ll only need one string for this bracelet, so you can save the other for another accessory!

Feed one of the discs onto the ribbon by sending the beading needle up through one hole and down through the other.

Pull the ribbon through, making sure that it doesn’t get twisted.

Add your other discs, lining them up and spacing them how you’d like. Make sure that the ribbon doesn’t twist and that all the discs are facing the same way.

When you get all your discs together, they will look something like this:

Now it’s time to add the clasp. First, measure your bracelet around your wrist according to how tightly you’d like it to sit. Mark where the ends of the ribbon should meet with a Sharpie.

Lay the ribbon in the foldover end cap, making sure the mark you made falls where the clasp or jump ring will be. This means that the ribbon sitting directly in the end cap will be closer to the center of the bracelet, with your mark falling outside of the folding part. If you line up the end cap with the mark, you will end up with another inch (or more) to the length of your bracelet. (Optional here: add a little jewelry cement to the inside of the end cap, to make certain the ribbon doesn’t slip out.)

This is where my mark is.

When you’ve got the ribbon where you want, cut the end off so that the ribbon sits flush in the foldable part of the end cap.

Now you can crimp down the sides, one at a time, with your pliers.

Repeat this process on the other side. Then, attach a jump ring to one end and the clasp to the other.

And there’s your perfectly matching bracelet.

I have several more to share with you, so stay tuned! And start saving your hanger hoops.