Who has never made a Brazilian bracelet for their best friend in the schoolyard or at camp? Creating Brazilian bracelets, or friendship bracelets, is a manual activity that children love. And it even pleases the grown-ups who wear these braided and colored bracelets in summer on the beach.
In this tutorial, I show how to make a Brazilian bracelet with a herringbone pattern.
Which wire to make Brazilian bracelets? Usually Brazilian bracelets are made with cotton thread, but there are many different types of thread for Brazilian bracelets. You can choose a waxed linen thread, a C-Lon beading cord, a Linhasita thread or a beaded cotton thread. Choose your skeins of yarn in the color you want and the number of threads. Here, I took 6 threads and 4 colors: white, light blue, green and blue.
For the herringbone pattern, you always need an even number of threads, and a main thread. For the main thread, I chose white.
Your main thread must be present in the same number as all your other threads combined. Since I chose 3 colored threads (light blue, green and blue), I need 3 white threads.
Tip : For a very strong spike pattern on your lucky bracelet, I recommend 2 colors with black as the main color.
Technically, the Brazilian herringbone bracelet is made like the chevron bracelet, with right side knots on the left wires and reverse knots on the right wires.
To know how to tie a knot forwards and backwards, read our technical sheet to learn how to make a Brazilian bracelet knot.
Cut about 80 cm of yarn each.
Tie your threads together leaving a loop, which will serve as a clasp (to insert a button, so do not make the loop too big).
Tighten your knot. Cut the excess wires and put glue all around your knot to secure the wires.
Use masking tape, for example, to attach your threads to a table.
Then arrange your threads in the order you want but always alternating a colored thread with a thread of the main color (here white, light blue, white, green, white, blue).
The threads overlap but don't worry, as soon as you make your first row, the threads will instantly be in order.
The first row will be the least beautiful of all, but as you knot your next rows it will improve a little.
Tip : When you tie your knots, be careful not to snag the threads next to you, especially when you make your first row.
Take your 1st yarn and tie two knots right side up around the 2nd yarn.
Still with your 1st thread, tie 2 more knots right side up on the next thread, the 3rd (here the white one).
Now, take your last thread, here the blue one, make 2 knots inside out around the second to last thread, here the white one.
Again with your last blue thread, make 2 reverse knots around the previous thread, here the green one.
Now you normally have in the center, your 1st thread and your last thread.
Tie them together twice. The difference between the herringbone pattern and the herringbone pattern is here.
For the herringbone, you tie the middle threads together with a knot at the right side.
For the herringbone, you have to tie the threads so that your main thread makes the knot around the second one. So you will alternate knotting right side up and knotting left side down.
Here, since I started my row with my main white yarn, when I get to the center, I'm going to make a right-side knot on my blue yarn.
If you started your row with a secondary yarn, no worries! If you've kept to the correct number of threads, your last thread should be a main thread, in which case you'll just tie a backwards knot.
Repeat these steps for your entire bracelet:
- 2 knots right side up on wires 2 and 3 with wire 1.
- 2 knots upside down on wires 4 and 5 with wire 6.
- 1 knot right side up or upside down between wire 1 and 6: your main wire always knots the other wire.
Tie all your wires together to stop your bracelet.
Pass the threads through the button of your choice.
Tie the threads around the ring of the button. Add a dot of glue and cut the excess wires.
You have a question about this tutorial? Ask it to our team and the people who have already tested it. The Perles & Co community is here to help you!
Credits
Perles & Co, Internet & E-Commerce company [21/05/2016] Any reproduction, representation, adaptation, in any form whatsoever, even partial, is prohibited, except for reproduction for private use not intended for collective use, representation in the family circle (art. L 122-5 CPI) and online publishing on condition that the source is mentioned and a link is included to the corresponding page of our site www.perlesandco.com.
