Did you know friendship bracelets began as a Central American tradition? There are two indigenous traditions accorded to wearing these bracelets. The first decrees the recipient must wear the bracelet until the cords fall apart because that's the way to honor the maker's effort. The second bestows the fulfillment of a wish once the bracelet disintegrates!


Many of us have fabric scraps, short bits of leather, embroidery floss, ribbons and other cords lying around. Why not make a bracelet base of leather and braid those scraps away?. I've hand picked the tutorials here because they are particularly lovely familiar and not so familiar friendship bracelets. Now that school is almost starting up, these are just the gifts the younger set might wish to give to their pals.

They can be as inexpensive or as glamorous as you choose to make it. Check out my past post on the amazing friendship bracelets of Katherine Sturgis.

Pascale from //between the lines// blog has the charming tutorial  for the bracelets pictured above. There is lots of room for your own creative touches!

Catherine Fox's video tutorial on FaveCrafts shows the basics of making the classic friendship bracelet from embroidery floss.



Add lots of color to these friendship bracelets. The tutorial is by Creativemind on Cut Out and Keep.

I don't know about you but I gave up on cross stitch years ago. So this wonderful traditional embroidery floss friendship bracelet tutorial will use up those unloved skeins! And your button collection. The tutorial is by Ken Hively from the Los Angeles Times.  You can also get several other floss based patterns here and here.

This chunky version is woven with 5 mil cord. The tutorial is from Makingfriends.com

Adding beads is a wonderful way to dress up friendship bracelets. I just love this bubblegum hemp friendship tutorial by How-to-make-jewelry.
 
Here is the classic hemp macrame bracelet tutorial by Rings and Things.

If you tend to use lots of different colored Softflex wire, then you will like Sara Hardin's friendship bracelet tutorial for Softflex.

Sanna on Cut Out and Keep made this less feminine yarn bracelet tutorial for that crafty look.








MPanda on Cut Out and Keep has this lovely purple flower friendship bracelet tutorial - not your usual kind.

For a funky twist, try the braided chain maille bracelet tutorial by Chezlin. She uses embroidery floss.

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Via

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
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