Red & Gray Traveler’s Notebook Friendship Bracelets Bag
Making something for myself this time. My 20th bag made with the colors of my clipboard, which will be a bag specially designed to hold my traveler’s notebook.
I’ve shown how to make bags before and with this series I’m hoping to do it again, but with a bit better camera work and improved sound. There’s also the hope that in my ramblings that I might share some insight that I might have missed in the past.
One of the important parts, in my opinion, is to have enough floss to finish. Running out may lead to a loss of enthusiasm and hold you back from actually completing it. These aren’t easy so you might as well take all the steps possible to ensure its completion.
The Kumihimo
Because of having so many strings for the loops I needed a special 64-slot kumihumo wheel to accommodate it. Here you can see the setup that made the spiral effect.
The kumi braids make up the loops that I’ll use to close this bag around the book. In other bags, it made for the strap to carry it and draw the bag closed. It’s a nice clean look to start the project with. Now, while I know that macrame loops can look nice, the smooth nature of the kumi means that it will wear better over time.
The Actual Knotting Begins
In the video above… I showed how one loop made two diamonds that joined, and how I kept joining them until I had the size I was looking for.
That Brings Us to Part 2
Once I had enough material to go around the traveler’s notebook, it was time to join the two ends of this massive project together. Watch as I make this happen.
Part 3 of the Tutorial! Adding strings!
Part 4 of the Tutorial… the Base!
The base took a bit of planning and to do that I used a bit of paper that I cut like one might do to make a snowflake to represent the triangle bits that would be left at the bottom.
I then folded the paper around to represent what the bag would look like once I started joining.
With a bit of math, I was able to determine that I needed four red diamonds to make the bottom of the bag close as I intended. I could have put all four next to each other, but I thought it might be more aesthetically and structurally sound to stagger them. This is how that went…
Any questions, just ask!