DIY 4-Strand Braid Bracelet

Hi crafters! Today I want to show you one of my favorite techniques, the 4-Strand Braid. It adds a bit of sophistication to your jewelry, while the typical braid tends to look a bit junior. This is also a VERY inexpensive bracelet that I'm making, so start using your creativity and try using this technique  with beads or strips of fabric! Anywho, on with the tutorial.

What you will need:

4 different colors of embroidery thread, tape, end bead, scissors, ruler.

In addition to these materials, I also used Mod Podge (you can use Elmer's Glue or clear nail polish as well) to help seal the knots.

for my 4 colors, I chose a palette that screamed SPRING! - yellow, purple, pink, and blue. 

 Cut 3 15 inch strands of each color embroidery thread. (Yes, I know that sounds like it's too long, but you will want the extra length to work with later. It's always better to cut it too long than too short!)

Separate your colors.

Make a loop with your embroidery thread, then pull the tail through the loop. DO NOT PULL TIGHT.

Stick your finger in the loop, and pull both ends of the thread tight so that the loop is snug around your finger. 

Now, with the shorter end, wrap another loop just like the first one, around the longer end. 

You WILL pull this one tight, to form a very basic square knot.

Do this one more time, and LEAVE THE TAIL. We will take care of that at the end. 

Now, tape down your knot and loop to a table and separate your 4 groups of colors.

Begin by taking the blue strands (3rd from the left) and laying it over the pink strand (2nd from the left)

Now, since the blue strands went OVER the pink strands, they will now go UNDER the yellow strands. 

And because the pink strands went UNDER the blue strands, they will now go OVER the purple strands. 

Now we have yellow and purple in the middle and the blue and pink strands that were originally in the middle are now on the outside.

You will repeat those weaving steps again... purple will go OVER the yellow and yellow UNDER the purple.

...and because the yellow went UNDER the purple, it will go OVER the pink, and the purple will go UNDER the blue.

Now we're back to having the pink and blue in the middle, so you just keep going with the UNDER/OVER pattern and it will start to look like this:

Just keep braiding, just keep braiding...

Once you've got a fairly long braid, place the ruler just under the knot at the loop to measure out how long you need it to be to fit your wrist. Also make sure you account for about 1/2 an inch extra to be included for the loop/bead closure. For example, I want my braid to be about 7 inches, because my wrist is about 7.5 inches.

Tie off another square knot where you want your bracelet to end, and pull it tight. 

Now, to add your closure bead, (you will notice I had to change mine to one with a slightly larger hole) take a scrap strand of embroidery thread and loop it around the tail below the knot. 

Pull the ends of the scrap strand (yellow) through the holes of your bead of choice.

Keep pulling on the scrap strand so that the tail gets pulled through the bead.

Keep pulling it all the way through....

Now your bead is perfectly strung on the tail.

Secure the other side of the bead with another knot.

It's up to you whether you want to leave the long tail or not, sort of like a tassel, but I don't like having things dangle too far off my wrist, so i chopped the tail down to about 1/4".

Now, go back to your loop at the beginning, and chop off that tail too.

Take your Mod Podge or Elmer's Glue, and gently rub a very small amount onto the threads, guiding them over the knot, so that they are pushed down and secure. This keeps your loop knot from coming undone. You can use a brush for this if you don't want to get it on your fingers. I don't mind getting my hands a little dirty.

The Mod Podge will dry clear, and when it does in about 20 minutes, you're good to go!

Cute new bracelet just in time for spring! You can make tons of these and stack them, or as I mentioned in the beginning of the post, use this technique on anything! I would love to see what you come up with. 

Comment here or E-mail me: Quirkability@gmail.com