Easy DIY tangle free no hassle embroidery floss wrapped headphones!

Ironman is constantly trying to use headphones that look like this ...

... all jumbled under his chin with about six inches of play connecting to his music. If I catch it I fix it for him but it drives   me   nuts! I tried making gift cards into headphone holders but I got sore fingers for nothing. They only work if they are used, and only while the headphones are physically on the holder. 

Then very recently I came across this Pinterest pin by Apartment Therapy. Aha! A solution!

There is a great tutorial for how to do this on wikihow, and you can see a video tutorial on this post I did on making a Simple Knot Friendship Bracelet which is the same technique.

The one thing I did differently from these tutorials is just use one colour at a time, and then knot the next one on when I was ready. It took approximately 40" of floss to do a three inch segment, and that includes room on either end to be wrapped underneath. The whole thing took 3 skeins of floss, which would cost about $2.50 or less if you bought them in singles. Nice cheap project!

How To Make Wide Chevron Friendship Bracelets

This friendship bracelet is a lot easier to make than it looks because although you have quite a few strings, you deal with them in twos instead of individually. Petunia is 9 and she made one for her friend. It's been a great project that kept her busy in fits ands starts for about a week.

OH SO PRETTY the DIARIES has a great tutorial for this bracelet that's clear and easy to follow.

I got the idea for this adding a button to the bracelet from this tutorial from friendship-bracelets.net, but my way was simpler. Finish the bracelet, get some thread that will blend in and just sew it on. 

Creating a button hole is easy too. You can check that tutorial out on friendship-bracelets.net as well. All you do is skip the step connecting the two sides in the middle point for about 3-5 rows, depending on the size of your button.

To end it, because obviously it's all in a V-shape, I just evened off the edges with knots as well as I could and tied them off.


see the rest of the series:

How to make a Simple Knot Friendship Bracelet

How to make Knotted Hearts Friendship Bracelets

How To Make Knotted Hearts Friendship Bracelets

Here is the second set of instructions for friendship bracelets. I was going to post this soon after the instructions for the simple knotted friendship bracelet but camping got in the way. :) If you're going to keep your kids busy for a good part of the summer I guess they'll need instructions for more than one bracelet, right? This one looks difficult but is actually very straight forward, which makes you (or your kids) look smart for very little effort. Nice.

I was going to take pictures and make a nice tutorial, but why redo what someone else has done beautifully? There is a great picture tutorial on how to make a knotted hearts friendship bracelet at honestly... so give it a try.

Check out the tutorial here.

If you still need help, here is a video tutorial that explains how to make the bracelet very clearly.

Happy bracelet making! As I said, we were camping and once nice thing about this project is that it can be brought along and worked on during quiet moments. . . not that there were many of those this trip with 6 kiddos around the campsite. ;o) Maybe next time?

Stay tuned for more bracelet instructions to come and enjoy your summer!

Are you going camping?


see the rest of the series:

How to make Knotted Hearts Friendship Bracelets

How to make Wide Chevron Friendship Bracelets

How to make a Simple Knot Friendship Bracelet

Summer vacation is upon us and for many that means a nice long break from school, which makes for more 'entertain me Mom' time, right? In theory, the words "I'm bored" aren't allowed in this house, but I still hear them from time to time. Friendship bracelet making is an activity that can entertain young ones (I'd say 6 and up) for nice long stretches of time and actually have something to show for their time.

Petunia - who by the way wants credit for modelling ;) - has been doing this off and on since her birthday in February when she received the supplies (mostly LOADS of thread!) and now Ironman is getting in on the action too.

The chunky bracelet with the beads in the photo above is the same technique as the skinny knotted bracelets, but the kids used waxed string to make them. I think they'll last a lot longer than the ones made with embroidery thread, sometimes also called craft thread.

This is an easy bracelet to start off with, and a good foundation for more complicated patterns because this knot is used in many other patterns like the heart bracelet in the photo above. It's an inexpensive hobby too. Walmart carries a pack of 105 skeins of craft thread for $15 Canadian.

This video shows you how to make 3 beginner friendship bracelets. The first one she shows you is the simple knot pattern.

If you prefer written instructions with pictures, the red kitchen also has a tutorial for this bracelet. They both use a safety pin to anchor their work, but we prefer to use a clipboard. Just tuck the top end up to the knot under the clip and you're set. It's especially good for smaller kids and beginners but when I'm making them in front of the TV in the evening I grab a clipboard.

Here's a better picture of the bigger knot bracelets made with waxed string. I know there are other designs pictured here and I will be posting more instructions for other bracelets - we've got a whole summer to fill up!

What's your favourite friendship bracelet pattern?

see the rest of the series:

How to make Knotted Hearts Friendship Bracelets (like the one above)

How to make Wide Chevron Friendship Bracelets