I Liked ONE Part of This Friendship Bracelet Pattern… So I Redesigned Everything Else

You don’t have to love an entire friendship bracelet pattern to get inspired by it.

Today I’m starting with friendship-bracelets.net pattern #89003—but there’s really only ONE part of the original design that caught my attention: that little red detail surrounded by gold.

So… what happens if we keep that and redesign everything else?

That’s exactly what I’m figuring out in this video—and I’m doing it without testing the new pattern beforehand.

Using my friendship bracelet graph paper template from akaawol.com, I trace the strings, change their paths, introduce three shades of blue, and experiment with different ways to make everything fit.

There are a few moments where I’m really not sure it’s going to work. 😅

But that’s part of designing!

One of the biggest lessons I want you to take away from these videos is that an existing pattern can be INSPIRATION rather than a rigid set of instructions.

See a diamond you love? Keep it.
Like one little color interaction? Build around it.
Want the strings to travel somewhere else? Try it!

Following the underlying string paths also gives us something incredibly useful: a visual reference when we actually knot the bracelet. If something doesn’t look right, we can see which string should be traveling over or under another.

The beginning and end of my finished design turned out differently from the main repeating section, too—but there’s a reason for that. Those knots set up the strings in the correct color order for the main design.

Sometimes the limitations of a pattern are exactly what create the interesting parts.

Now there’s only one thing left to do…

Actually make it. 🧵

If you like this pattern and would like to support my work >>>

Sometimes the best thing you can do with a friendship bracelet pattern is NOT follow it.

This bracelet is loosely based on friendship-bracelets.net pattern #89003. I liked one particular repeating shape from the original, but instead of recreating the whole pattern, I used that element as inspiration and built my own bracelet around it.

And I’m really glad I did.

I added gaps to break up the long gold string, changed details I didn’t care for, redesigned how the colors travel, and created completely different beginnings and endings.

Those ends might actually be one of my favorite parts!

Because another full repeat wouldn’t fit, I used inward-facing chevrons instead. The strings gradually knot over groups of five, four, three, and so on—and it creates a surprisingly cool effect at each end of the bracelet.

Not everything worked exactly as I imagined, though.

The white and lightest blue ended up MUCH closer in color than I expected. Would I choose a slightly darker blue if I made it again? Probably! But the almost-white center diamonds created an interesting effect of their own.

🧵 12 strings
⏱️ About 1½ hours
📈 Intermediate difficulty
🎨 Three repeating main motifs

I also share an important tip in this video that can help if your friendship bracelets start looking worse as you work down the pattern: MOVE YOUR CLIP!

Keeping your working area close to the binder clip gives the bracelet more support and can make a huge difference. You can even keep repositioning the bracelet around your board for much longer projects.

The bigger lesson from this project is simple: you don’t have to treat an existing pattern as something you must copy exactly.

Take the part that inspires you and experiment.

Change the colors. Change the spacing. Redirect the strings. Create a different beginning or ending. Make something that feels like YOUR bracelet.

💬 Have a friendship bracelet question? Leave it in the comments or come find me on Discord. Your question might even inspire a future video!

And if you make your own version of this design, share it—I’d love to see the colors and changes you come up with.

Find more friendship bracelet tutorials, designs, and resources at akaawol.com.

A huge thank you to my YouTube Members for helping support the channel, website, equipment, and videos. If you’d like to join them, look for the Join button next to Subscribe.

Thanks for watching, and as always…

Don’t get your strings in a bunch!