Summer has begun!

I officially am done school for this year! Yay for summer vacation! That means more bracelet making time.I hope to add more tutorials to my blog and show off more of my work. Hopefully I will get more bracelet tutorials, teach you how to read normal patterns and how to make two-colored and multicolored alphas. Have a great summer and make lots of bracelets! 

Broken Ladder Bracelet Tutorial

This bracelet is easy to make and super cute! My art class made these and they really enjoyed them. To make this bracelet, you should know how to make the Chinese staircase and chevron. I have tutorials for both of them if you aren't sure how to make them.

Supplies 

You will need 8 pieces of embroidery floss, either 4 colors or 2 colors. I will be using 4 colors and they will be red, orange, yellow, and cream. 

Step 1

Set up your strings like a chevron bracelet. My setup will be 

r,o,y,c,c,y,o,r

Step 2 

Make four rows of chevron, which would be one row for each each color. 

Step 3 

Now divide your strings into two groups. That means one of each color will be in a group with a total of 4 strings in a group. 

Step 4

Take the color that was your first row of chevron. For me that is red. Take that string and make 10-15 rows of Chinese staircase. Do that for each group. 

Step 5 

Take the next color and make a row of chevron. The first row will be a bit wonky, but it will even out.

 Make another three rows of chevron. 

Step 6 

Repeat steps 2-5 until your bracelet is the desired length. 

Note: try to keep the color pattern consistent. So if the Chinese staircase is red then the next chevron would be orange. 

Bordered Candystripe Bracelet Tutorial

This bracelet is super cute and fun to make. In this tutorial, two new knots are going to be used, the forward-backward knot and the backward-forward knot. So make sure you know how to make them. (check out my tutorial here)

Supplies 
Six pieces of string, two of one color and four other colors. The two of one color will be the "border" color for this bracelet. I'll be using gray, blue, yellow,purple and  orange for this tutorial. Gray is going to be the border color.

Step 1
Cut your strings and start your bracelet anyway you want.

Step 2 
Set up your strings in this order- gray, blue, yellow, purple, orange, gray. (g,b,y,p,o,g)
(grays will be referred to as g1 and g2 for clearer instructions)

Step 3
Take g1 and make a forward-backward knot (fk/bk) onto the blue string

Step 4 
Take your blue string and make forward knots onto y,p,o

Step 5
Take g2 and make a backward-forward knot onto the orange string.

Step 6 

Continue steps 3-6 until your bracelet is the desired length. The gray will not move from their positions, but the colors will alternate positions, like a regular candy stripe.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bracelet (the cute version)

This was another really fun bracelet to make and I think I finished it faster than any other alpha bracelet I have made :) It is 14 strings wide and a total of 76 rows. I did not create the pattern; I found it here puffinpie99's pattern on friendship-bracelets.net

Here is the other one I made. This one is a bit longer than the one above; it is a total of 86 rows. The only other thing different in this one is that I made the buckle purple instead of green. 

And here is the final bracelet. This one is 81 rows long and the buckle is orange. I also glued on a piece of fabric on the back so the glue wouldn't itch. I really did enjoy making this pattern. But now I have to take a break from this pattern and get going on my bracelet to-do list! 

And here is another bracelet for this pattern! I've made so many of these! This one is 95 rows long and I used gradient backround instead of solid grey.

Sorry for the bad photo quality. It was taken at my friends house and the lighting was off :( 

Mustache bracelet

This was a really cool bracelet to make and it went by fast. Its only ten strings wide and I did a total of 80 rows. I didn't create the pattern; here's the link yonnahali's pattern on braceletbook.com

The method for the pop tab beginning can be located here: fieldhockey8's tutorial on friendship-bracelets.net  (It's located near the end of the tutorial)

Peruvian Wave Bracelet Tutorial

This bracelet is awesome and really fun to make. I hope this tutorial will explain to you how to make one yourself.

Supplies
Eight strings (four colors, two of each color) Two of these strings you won't see when you make this bracelet. I'm using green, pink, blue, and white. (You won't see the white strings.)

Step 1
Cut your strings and start it the way you want (braids, buckle, etc.)

Step 2
Set up you strings so that the colors are together. Mine are set up pink, pink, blue, blue, green, green, white, white. Always make sure that the color you don't see is always the outermost string. I'll refer to the strings as P1 P2 B1 B2 G1 G2 W1 W2

Step 3
Take G2 and make forward knots onto W1 and W2.

Step 4
Now take G1 and make forward knots onto W1 and W2

Step 5
Continue making forward knots onto the white strings with the other colors until your setup is opposite of what it was at the beginning.
W1 W2 P1 P2 B1 B2 G1 G2

Step 6
Take P1 and make backward knot onto W2 and W1

Step 7
Take P2 and make backward knots onto W2 and W1

Step 8
Continue making backward knots onto the white strings with the other colors until you setup returns to the same setup as step 2.

Step 9
Continue steps 1-8 until your bracelet is the desired length. End your bracelet the way you want and enjoy your bracelet!

Ways to start and end a bracelet

There are many ways to start and end a friendship bracelet, so I am going to give you a list of some of them.

Knot and loose strings
This is the easiest way to start and end a friendship bracelet. Just tie an overhand knot at the beginning, leaving enough string at the top to tie with, make the bracelet and tie another knot at the end.

Braided ends 
This is another easy way to start and end your bracelet. You can do it just like previous way and braid the loose strings or do it like this…
Tape your string to a surface, leaving enough string to braid with. Then make your bracelet until it is the right length for you. Don't tie an overhand knot at the end, just take the strings at the end and braid them. Then take the strings that are at the top and braid them the same way you did for the bottom one. I like braiding it the second way with alpha patterns because it doesn't make the edges curl.

Buckle 
A buckle is a really cool way to start your bracelet. I'm not going to explain them here but I will put some links on some different tutorials. Alicat's tutorial on friendship-bracelets.net   spiffehgymnast's tutorial on friendship-bracelets.net
To end your bracelet that begins with a buckle, you can make two braids or put a button on the end. I won't explain the button ending but I will post a link. Rose47's tutorial on friendship-bracelets.net

V-shaped ending 
I haven't tried this method yet but I have seen pictures and it is really cool! I didn't create this method so I will post a link. faliza's tutorial on friendship-bracelets.net