
This post and photos may contain Amazon or other affiliate links. If you purchase something through any link I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.
A few weeks back I made some horribly embarrassing videos to show you how to make chevron friendship bracelets. The reason why was because I had a handful of chevron friendship projects to show you. But I dropped the ball and they got lost in the shuffle.
So today I’m finally sharing with you the second chevron project…a totally awesome friendship bracelet watch (the first was DIY chevron flip flop straps).
For this project you will need:
- a watch face with posts
- craft floss or embroidery floss
- crimp ends (optional) – mine are 20mm
- jump rings & closure (optional)
To get started you’ll need your watch face and your floss. I’m using craft floss in orange, white and a minty blue type of color. Cut strips that are about 48 inches long. For this watch face you’ll need 10 of these long strands for each side (but only cut 10 right now, leave the others until you’re ready to start on the other side).
We’re going to lash each piece of floss onto the bar to begin making our strap. Put the ends of one long piece of floss together and grab the end. Push it through the bar and then pull the ends through the loop you made just like in the pics above.
Pull tight to latch on.
Continue this for all of your cuts of floss. Be sure to maintain the colors as you want them in your pattern. I wanted thick stripes of orange and mint and thinner strips of white. As a result my order went: orange, orange, white, mint, mint, mint, mint, white, orange, orange.
And now you just start your friendship braiding. Because we latched onto the post we’re not going to have that weird bunched up thing that happens on most friendship bracelets that begin with a knot. Pretty cool, huh?
You have the option of braiding the ends like any other friendship bracelet and then tying closed when you wear it. This isn’t the prettiest option but it will work really well. But if you want to use closures, keep on reading.
When you get the length you want take a decent amount of glue and run a line where you’ll need to cut. Rub the glue into the threads on both the front and back sides. This will keep the braid firmly together for our next step. I used Aleene’s quick dry tacky glue because I’m horribly impatient.
One thing to note is that friendship braids have a decent amount of give in them. I didn’t consider this and after a few wears I’ve had to shorten my straps. You may want to go ahead and make the watch a weensy bit tight. It may be uncomfortable that first wear but it will be perfect a few hours in.
Use sharp scissors to cut through your strap in the area you applied the glue. See how well it sticks together? Go ahead and run a bit on the very end to help prevent fraying.
Place your clamp onto the end of the straps and use pliers to clamp tightly on.
Finish the ends with a jump ring on one anda jump ring and closure on the other.
And there you have it! It’s a pretty fun watch to wear and brings in the whole friendship bracelet trend in a new way. What do you think? Will you be making one up? Sounds like a great weekend project to me! Happy Friday. Hoping your weekend plans are stellar!