Want to make a gift for your friends? Give them a Chinese Staircase friendship bracelet and tell them you made it yourself! The fact that you put time and effort into making them a personalized gift will make it all the more special - they'll be sure to treasure it forever. All you'll need is some string or embroidery thread.
1Choose your thread. You can use embroidery floss, plain yarn, or any other medium-to-thick string. You'll need three strands. (But once you know how to do this you can use more than three.) Contrasting colors––such as red, white and blue, or green, pink and white––will show off the intricacy of the bracelet better.Ad
2Cut your thread. Cut a little more than you need rather than too little; remember that you can always cut more thread off if you need to. Wrap the thread about three to four times around your wrist or ankle. This should give you a pretty close guess of how much thread you'll need. If your friend's wrists or ankles are bigger or smaller than yours, adjust accordingly.
3Start your bracelet. Double-knot the three strings together at one side, so they stay together. This will be the first knot of your bracelet.
4Stabilize your bracelet. As you tie the bracelet, you'll need the end to be tied down somehow so that your knots maintain consistent tension. You can tape the knotted end onto the edge of a table, counter, leg or to a chair. You could also clip it to a clipboard. Or, use a safety pin and attach it to a small pillow, or to the knee of your jeans; or make a loop with the string and put it around your toe. You may also let another person hold the end for you.
5Loop the first color. Hold two strings in one hand and the other string in the other hand. Cross the one string over and under the two. (It might look something like a '4' shape.)
6Pull the thread through the loop. Take the tail, or end, of the '4' by putting your hand in the wide space of the '4' and pull the tail. As you tie the knot, pull the two strings in one hand vertically (downward), or parallel to your leg or the table. Pull the string with which you tied the knot horizontally, or perpendicular to your leg or the table. The knot will rise to the top, next to the first knot that you tied.
7Keep tying. Repeat the loop and the pull-through 10 to 15 times, then switch colors. You don't have to switch, but if you decide not to, make sure the one color you want to use is longer than the others. As you stitch down the bracelet make sure that the pattern is curving nicely and looks like a spiral staircase.
8Stop when the bracelet fits. When the bracelet can fit around your wrist or ankle loosely, so you can take it off and put on, stop tying.
9Finish off. Tie the tail in a double knot, and tie the two ends of the bracelet together.Ad
We could really use your help!
jobs in Hollywood?
- Use colors opposite to each other on the color wheel.
- Knot the strings tight or else they'll stretch apart if you happen to accidentally pull them.
- You can use more than three strings.
- The more colors you use, the wider your bracelet will turn out.
- Use you friend's favorite colours to win their hearts as a gift.
- It would really help to tape it or pin it on a surface. But it's possible to make one without pinning it on a surface.
- If you use more than three strings, make sure they are even lengths.
- If one knot overlaps another, carefully put a needle and put underneath the overlapped loop and try to undo it.
- Use coordinating colors.
- Leave the knots looser for a looser and larger staircase look.
- Sometimes you may get messy or bad knots in the string. When this happens, don't tug on the string. That will make the knot worse.
Things You'll Need
- 3 or more colored strands of embroidery floss (about 10 yards long); thin or regular yarn also works, but embroidery floss works best
- Tape, safety pin, or clipboard.
In other languages:
Español: Cómo hacer un brazalete de escalera china , Deutsch: Ein chinesisches Treppenarmband herstellen, Português: Como Fazer uma Pulseira de Escada Chinesa, Italiano: Come Realizzare un Braccialetto Cinese dell'Amicizia, Русский: сделать китайский винтовой браслет
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 707,526 times.