How to Measure for a Friendship Bracelet Project

Using calipers for accurate measurement.

In this example, we have one bracelet, with 16 strings (being doubled up doesn’t matter as long as that’s what you’re using for your project). The bracelet is 24mm wide.

So if we divide the size by the number of strings we get 24/16=1.5mm.

Next, we need to know the number of loops. Let’s say 12 loops. Then the math is 12(loops) x 16(strings) = 192 strings.

Now we know the number of strings and how much space each will take up as a knot (1.5mm). So next we multiply that by your total number of strings. 192(strings) x 1.5mm = 288mm

But this number would be inaccurate because every time you join two bracelets together you make 1 extra row. So how do we account for this? We take the number of joins, in this case, 12 and multiply it by that same 1.5mm. 12(strings joined) x 1.5mm = 18mm.

Add the 18mm to the 288mm to get the right circumference of 306mm.

The shorter way to look at this equation is to say 16(strings) x 1.5mm x 12(loops) + (12 loops or joins x 1.5mm).

That’s great and all to find out how big it will be, but what about when you want to know how many strings you need to go around something? Say like my pen holder. The can was 233mm in circumference and I was using the same size strings as in the previous example.

So given that 16 strings is 24mm wide, I divided 233mm by 24mm, then multiplied the answer by 16 to get the number of strings needed. That’s 233/24×16=155 strings.