father's day diy: friendship bracelets

This father's day why not up Dad's coolness factor by knotting up a handful of bracelets for him? Children 7 and up can easily create these small pieces in little time. Change up your cording and create a trio for all the guys in your family...gals too!

The twist on this set of bracelets is to use thicker cord, not yarn or embroidery floss. Parachute cord is nice and sturdy and now comes in all sorts of colors. Hemp cord can be found in the jewelery aisle of most craft stores and shoelaces can be found jsut about anywhere!

Because we are using these thicker cords, you only need two strands (perfect for a pair of shoelaces) or three for the hemp. You can knot your cords at the start though that black starter on the right there really needed a bit more at the top for tying off. If using hemp cord, give it a loop before knotting, this will create a clasp of sorts so Dad can take it off when he needs to. The shoelaces were super thick so I did a loop and ran it through the sewing machine two or three times to anchor them all together.

There are many tutorials out there using embroidery floss. Here is my diy post for using chunky yarn and here is a link to a video that might help as well. I have also found that younger children around 4 and 5 really like to knot things up so you can also set them up with a starter bracelet and let them get to twisting and knotting. I still use the safety pin trick and anchor it to my pants. Some children will get a kick out of it if you anchor it to a table leg or other stationary object.

To finish off your bracelets, you can simply wait until Dad opens them and tie them to his wrist or you can add a fat knot to the opposite end so that it will fit through the loop you created without slipping out. If Dad is not a bracelet wearer, you can also make a shorter "bracelet" and loop it into a key fob. Have fun and Happy Father's Day!