Friendship Weekend

According to Mimsey's Fancy Nancy calendar, today is friendship day.  According to the internet, tomorrow is friendship day.  Instead of choosing sides, I'm declaring this friendship weekend!

I'm a child of the 1980's, so of course the first thing that pops into my mind are friendship bracelets.  How did we celebrate friends before them?  LOL!!  Alas, my days of endless macrame knotting are far behind me, despite the lure of new embroidery floss.  If I was going to make friendship bracelets, they needed to be simple, quick and pretty.  Grown-up girl friendship bracelets.  Jake suggested the name "grown-a$$-woman friendship bracelets."  I have vetoed that name...

I adored the way that my surfer girl necklaces turned out.  They were simple and pretty, but I wanted something with a more sophisticated aesthetic for these new bracelets.  It occurred to me that if I used Super-Lon (instead of hemp) I might get more of a 'Breakfast at Tiffanys' look.  It was worth a try...

The first version turned out horrible!!  Ahahaha!!! But, the second try was just what I had hoped for.  Part sophisticated, part fun, appropriate for every occasion!  Mims also wanted me to make sure to tell you that it's waterproof too (in case you wanted to go swimming with her in her auntie's pool).

Grown-Up Girl Friendship Bracelets
size: approx. 7 1/2" bracelet
Supplies:
Super-Lon #18 micro-macrame thread (I used Montana Blue)
Size D crochet hook
4 mm round pearls, 70 (I used Crystazzi glass pearls)
10 mm round pearl, just one (I used Crystazzi glass pearls)
Scissors
Tapestry needle

Load all of your beads onto the Superlon, adding the 10mm bead last.   I used the same snip-cord-at-an-angle technique to put the beads on as I used on the Surfer Girl Necklace.  Add a slip knot to the cord about 3 inches in from the loose end.

Slide the first bead snugly against the slip knot.  Using your crochet hook, yarn over (from the other side of the bead) and pull a loop though the slip knot to make the first chain (this bead will become the first half of the fastener for the bracelet).  Chain 2 more times.

Slide the next bead up snugly to the chain.  Yarn over from the other side of the bead to pull the loop through and attach the bead.  Then slide the next bead up.  Don't put an extra chain between stitches.  Add a bead with each chain.  **Handy Tip:  Chain loosely! It pulls the bracelet out of shape if you chain too tightly.**  Once you've added 35 beads (halfway done!), chain 8 without beads.  That 'blank space' will become the loop for the other side of the bracelet fastener.

Begin adding the beads to the chain again.  Keep chaining/adding beads until you run out of beads (35 beads, for those of you keeping score at home).  Fasten off, leaving a 18 inch tail.

Line up your two sections of beading.  Make sure that they aren't twisted, since you're going to sew the two sides together in the next step.  I found it easier to make sure they were straight when I was  looking at the front of the bracelet.

Gently flip the bracelet so that you're looking at the back (the side with the stitches).  Thread your tapestry needle with the tail end of the cord.  Whipstitch the two rows of beads together. I whipstitched mine together using only the inside thread of each stitch.

When you get to the last bead, whipstitch through the first of the 'empty' chains on the end.  This helps to secure the loop for the closure.  Weave the ends in at both ends of the bracelet.  Snip off any extra cord once the ends are sufficiently woven in.

Now that you've finished the first one (Hooray for you!!!!), start the whole process over and make sixteen more for all of your friends!

You can use other types of beads.  I used pink bicone crystals (6mm) and seed beads (they came together when I bought them) with some Black Superlon.    I used both strands of crystals/seed beads for the bracelet (16 crystals, 15 seed beads for each side).  I also used a 10mm glass pearl for the fastener.  I had to extend the 'empty' chains on either end to make it a 7 1/2 inch bracelet, which I just stitched together when I was whipstitching the two sides together.  DO NOT add extra 'empty' chains between beads to lengthen this bracelet.  It will cause the bracelet to twist horribly (that was what I did on that first disastrous version), and it won't look cute.  Just add extra chains after the 10mm clasp bead (I used 5 stitches instead of 2) and add more to the blank space in the middle that becomes the loop (I used 15 stitches instead of 8).  Are you completely confused?!  LOL!!!  It's incredibly intuitive, and not a big deal when you're actually making the bracelet.  Mostly I really wanted to drive home the point that if you need to lengthen the bracelet, do it in the empty chains, not the beaded part... Unless you have more beads that you could use... In which case, why are we even discussing this?!  Just add more beads!

One last thing before I go:  Karen and Laura, your prizes are sitting in my living room.  Please email me your addresses so that I can mail them out to you.  This is your last chance.  If I don't hear from you by Sunday night, I'm going to have my Mema draw 2 more names... ;D

xoxo