Friendship bracelets are a timeless craft project for kids (and adults) of all ages. Whether you’re just learning each simple knot for the first time or you’re ready to move on to more advanced techniques, you’ll find what you need in these friendship bracelet patterns!
Friendship bracelets were all the rage when I was a kid.
Swapping bracelets with your BFF was so fun and a sure sign of ever-lasting friendship. Now, my daughter has gotten into making her own friendship bracelets too.
Below you will find a ton of friendship bracelet patterns so you can get in on the fun and share it with your kids as well!
First, I just have to say how much I love everything about friendship bracelets:
Making friendship bracelets is the perfect activity for a rainy afternoon, a summer camp, Girl Scouts, a youth group, or even a slumber party.
But don’t save all the fun for a special occasion!
In fact, we just made them for hours during our most recent family road trip. It was a great way to pass the time PLUS – had new bracelets to wear when we arrived!
Ok – now you know how much I love them…let’s move on!
A friendship bracelet is traditionally a hand-knotted bracelet made from embroidery floss that is given to someone as a sign of friendship.
They first became popular in the United States in the early 70s. It’s believed that they began in Central America, where the form of knotting is popular, similar to macrame.
By the 1980s friendship bracelets had become wildly popular with young girls (me included)
I can remember large groups of us bringing our bracelet-making supplies to school and working on them during recess and lunchtime. Usually, we either worked on our bracelets.
Or planned how we were going to run our own Babysitters Club.
One of the best aspects of the bracelets is the tradition that once the recipient puts it on, they can’t take it off. This shows the friend that gave it to you how much you appreciate them and represents your “ever-lasting” friendship.
Folklore has it that the recipient should wait until it falls off naturally when the threads become worn. Otherwise, if you take it off before then, you risk breaking your friendship.
I happen to know this isn’t true because I took one off that my BFF gave me in second grade, and we are still friends (30 years later). So, the superstition may not be true, but it’s just one of those things that makes friendship bracelets special and so much fun!
One reason that friendship bracelets are such a fun craft project for kids of all ages is that you really only need one thing – thread.
You can find embroidery thread online, at any craft store, or even at Walmart, and it comes in pretty much every color under the sun. It’s super cheap, and you can even get starter kits that come with fun color combinations to get started.
Some of the more advanced friendship bracelet patterns may also call for beads or buttons, but typically you’ll just need the thread to get started.
Even though I have always been a fan of handmade jewelry, I am thankful for the current boho trend that has helped bring back the popularity of friendship bracelets.
While the traditional bracelets with a simple braid still exist and my daughter is learning how to make some of my personal favorite friendship bracelet patterns, there are so many options these days.
Now you can find tons of gorgeous patterns and designs in lots of colors and thicknesses.
Some even include beads and shells.
They also look amazing when paired with other leather or metal bracelets – allowing adults like me to get in on the trend!
By now, I am pretty sure you are convinced that friendship bracelets are amazing and need to be a part of your life.
Let’s get started!
If you have never made a friendship bracelet before, check out this video that shows you the basics to get started.
Announcement: You will notice that many of the friendship bracelet tutorials below are made by kids. Personally, I think this is totally RAD and I am sure they will all the views this post gives them as we click and learn!
Just like with any other new skill, you want to start with the basics.
In this case, that means perfecting basic friendship bracelets with techniques like a simple braid, backward knot, and forward knot.
Once you have the basics down…go wild!
One of the tricks to making professional-looking bracelets is to tie consistently sized knots and keep the pattern neat and organized.
Below you will find the best beginning friendship bracelet patterns to help you practice your technique.
This bracelet is great for beginners. It doesn’t require as much thread as some of the other patterns, though you can choose to use up to 6 or 8 strands.
This pattern is created by braiding instead of knotting, which is familiar to most people. The fishtail pattern can look similar to a chevron pattern (my favorite - see below!), but if you look closely, you’ll see the differences.
This fishtail friendship bracelet pattern takes anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes to make, depending on how quickly you braid.
Watch tutorial
The candy stripe pattern was the first friendship bracelet design that I ever learned and it’s perfect for beginners.
One of the challenges of making knotted bracelets is keeping track of your threads and staying organized.
The candy stripe pattern is the perfect pattern to master the basics of bracelet making. Here is a simple video tutorial.
Watch tutorial
Obsessed with anything chevron?
It’s such a classic pattern that makes everything look good: backsplash tile, wood flooring, and…friendship bracelets.
Once you master the basic knotting technique and the candy stripe pattern, you will be ready to create a chevron friendship bracelet.
