Friendship Bracelet Tutorial: Chevron Stitch

Every time I start a new friendship bracelet I have to giggle a little. As a young teen, these were all the rage and the more patterns you knew how to do from memory, the cooler you were. So totally. As friendship bracelets come back in fashion (did they really ever go away, though?), I've received more and more requests from young and older alike on how to make the evergreen piece of jewelry. Ask, and you shall receive! In this DIY guide, we're going to cover the straight-up traditional method of creating a friendship bracelet in a chevron pattern. There are more simple patterns ... but it really starts here if you're going for something more than one band of color after the other (and if that's what you're looking for, please leave a comment and I'll happily provide instructions on it, too!)

Materials Needed: A safety pin or piece of tape (something to hold your work tightly in place) 2 colors of embroidery floss A pair of scissors The materials above are for creating a 2-color chevron friendship bracelet. If you want more colors, go for it! You will need 12 strands total, so that gives you up to 6 color choices.

Going old-school, I've assembled my chosen colors of embroidery floss (a dark gray and very light pink), a safety pin, and scissors. And for true old-school good measure, I've donned a pair of my most comfy denim jeans. You can attach your project using tape, a safety pin, or a thumb tack - the idea is to keep the knotted strands secure. Some people will cringe when they see me pinning my jeans but it just feels so nostalgic. If you don't want to pin your jeans, you can attach the safety pin to a pillow. So, beyond the materials ... let's get to the real 'first step'. You need 12 pieces of embroidery floss cut at about 15-20 inches. You should be able to wrap the length around your wrist 4-5 times. When using 2 colors of floss, it will take about 1/2 a skein to get this many threads cut. This allows length for loose threads for tying, and won't make the bracelet too short when you're done whipping up the weave - what we call the chevron stitch.

Once you have your strands, tie them in a knot about 3 inches down and either tape to a surface or run a safety pin through them and stick it. Arrange the threads so that they are a mirror image of each other. This is vital in the chevron pattern (all patterns require a certain thread arrangement).   The colors I've chosen make it a little difficult to see, but the arrangement (from the outside to the center) is: Left side: pink, gray, pink, gray, pink, gray Right side: pink, gray, pink, gray, pink, gray This makes a perfect mirror image with pink on the outside of both the left and right side and gray in the center. When working a friendship bracelet, you will almost always start on the outside left. So, to start our chevron pattern, I will first knot my furthest to the left pink around the second strand in, which is gray. Hold the second strand in tight and wrap the outside strand over and around it, pulling the end up through the center of the loop. Then gently tug it up the length of your floss until it reaches the knot. Repeat once more. Every time you knot over a thread, make 2 knots. This is important. It will move the outside thread into the second thread's position. While we're on the knots, make sure that you really snug them up against each other. You don't want to pull so tight that they're not distinguishable, but if they're too loose or you make some tighter than others, the width of your finished bracelet will go in and out - the bane of beginners. With your outside color, holding the second strand tight, make a 4-shape. Loop the end of your knotting color over and behind the second strand, coming up through the center of the 4. Once 2 knots are made on the second strand, it will swap places with the knotting strand and become the first, outside color. Repeat Step 3 until you've reached the center of your strands (where 2 of the same colors meet - in my case, where 2 gray strands meet). You have made 1/2 of your chevron. At this point, it's difficult to see the pattern in the image but you can see how the threads have swapped and your color arrangement should behave much better. With 1/2 of your chevron made, it's time to create the second half. Start with your outside right strand, knot it twice over the 2nd right strand, and knot your way to the center. You're doing the exact same thing as before, but in reverse direction. When your second half of the chevron is made, you will need to connect the halves. Do this by knotting the two (matching color - in my case pink) strands twice. Your first chevron is complete. It's still a little hard to see, but your first chevron is complete once you've knotted the two center strands together. Starting back at the left with your new outside color (gray for me), repeat steps 3 - 6. Continue doing so ... over and over ... making sure that you keep your color arrangement intact and you'll soon see something like this: Continue working alternate colors until your bracelet is about 7 inches long (without the tie knot). This is the standard size for an 'adult' size wrist. When it reaches this length, knot it off tight against the last row. Then, to keep the ends from fraying, braid them and voila! Beautiful chevron friendship bracelet ready to wear.