Homemade Bracelets With Embroidery Thread
Show your friends you care by creating simple and beautiful bracelets from embroidery floss. These bracelets make great gifts or even a sales opportunity. You can also keep them flat and use them as bookmarks or make longer ones to use as headbands. The color combinations and uses are as endless as your imagination.
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Gather Your Supplies
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To make friendship bracelets, you will need a large amount of embroidery floss. Purchase skeins of floss individually or in variety packs at craft stores. Also, consider purchasing an organizer box for your floss and a selection of cardboard card holders for your floss. You will also need safety pins, clear fingernail polish and an iron to finish your bracelets properly.
When you get home with your supplies, take out all of your floss. It will come in little skeins with paper wrapped around both ends. Take off the paper wrapping and loop your floss around the cardboard holders. This will keep the floss organized and help you detangle it while you are making your bracelets. These cardboard holders will fit nicely into your plastic organizer box. Sort them by color families in rainbow order for the easiest storage method. Leave space to add future colors as you purchase more floss.
Create Your Bracelets
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You will need approximately 60 inches of each color to make one friendship bracelet. Make bracelets in any color combination you desire, but it is probably best to start with 2 to 4 colors at one time. Cut your strands to 60 inches in length and knot together at one end. Then you will use your safety pin to hold your strands securely; you can either pin them to the leg of your pants or to a small pillow you can hold in your lap. This will keep your bracelet secure as you work.
You will be tying your bracelet into a series of knots (see link in References). If you prefer a different technique, you may also braid your bracelet holding 3 (or multiples of 3) strands together and braiding them as you would braid hair.
When you finish making your bracelet (an average adult bracelet is 7.5 inches in length), tie a knot at the other end to secure it. Then you can remove your safety pin from the top end of your bracelet.
Finishing Techniques
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Friendship bracelets have a tendency to curl because they are tied so tightly. Avoid this by ironing your finished bracelets on an ironing board. You may even wish to spray them with a little bit of spray starch to help them hold their shape for a longer time. Let bracelets cool after ironing, and then they will be ready to distribute and wear.
To keep the ends of your bracelets from fraying, paint on (or dip them into) a little clear nail polish. If you like, you can even sew beads onto your bracelet or paint your friends' names on them with tubes of squeeze-able fabric paint.
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