What happens when you flip a friendship bracelet pattern and turn arrows inward instead of outward?

What happens when you flip a friendship bracelet pattern and turn the arrows inward instead of outward? 🤔

In this video, I revisit a pattern we created just a few days ago—but this time I rotate the design and experiment with the direction of the arrows to see if it creates a more interesting final bracelet. Sometimes a small change in orientation can completely transform how a pattern looks once it’s tied.

We start by rotating the pattern clockwise, enlarging it, and rebuilding the design with a new earth-tone color palette using browns, gray (our usual stand-in for black), and a lighter brown that almost leans toward orange. Instead of carefully planning every detail, I let the design evolve naturally as we fill in the strings and approach the center.

The result? A bold X-shaped centerpiece with arrows pointing inward—something that might look even better in the finished bracelet than the outward version we tried before.

This is also a great example of how pattern experimentation can lead to new ideas. Sometimes simply flipping or mirroring a design opens up possibilities you might not have considered.

Huge thanks to my YouTube Members for supporting the channel—you helped make it possible to stock up on a huge batch of embroidery floss so we can keep the bracelet experiments going all year long!

If you enjoy exploring friendship bracelet design and want to learn how to create your own patterns, you’re in the right place.

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And as always…

Don’t get your strings in a bunch.

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Today we’re revisiting Pattern 45, but with one important change: the arrows now point toward the center instead of away from it.

And honestly… I think this version wins. 👀

By flipping the direction of the pattern, the bracelet forms a bold X-shaped focal point in the middle that completely changes the feel of the design. It’s amazing how such a small adjustment—just reversing the direction—can make a pattern feel entirely new.

This bracelet took about an hour to make, and once the pattern got going it was surprisingly easy to follow without constantly checking the reference. That said, I wouldn’t call it completely beginner-friendly because of the zigzag knots, but if you’re getting comfortable with zigzags and follow the bracelet row by row, it’s definitely manageable.

Pattern 45 is one of the earlier patterns added to friendship-bracelets.net, and it’s a clever one. The way the arrow tips extend and create extra points gives the bracelet a lot of character without making it overly complicated.

But flipping the pattern halfway through?
That’s where things get interesting.

Instead of repeating the same directional pattern the whole way down, reversing it creates a strong central focal point that reminds me a bit of those bold Roman numeral designs you’d see for things like Super Bowls.

Next up, I’ll be trying the same directional flip on another bracelet we recently designed to see what kind of effect it creates there.

Also… I accidentally cut the wrong number of strings for another project, so apparently I’ll be making some unexpected patterns in the near future. 😅

If you’ve seen both versions of this bracelet, I’d love to know:

Which one do you prefer — arrows outward or arrows inward?

Drop a comment and let me know.

👍 Like the video if you enjoy bracelet experiments like this.
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More tutorials and patterns:
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#akaawol #friendshipbracelet #braceletpattern #bracelettutorial #diycraft #jewelrymaking #craft

And as always…
Don’t get your strings in a bunch.