Turning My Mermaid Bag Swatch Into a Matching Friendship Bracelet
What do you do with a 168-string color swatch after using it to start a mermaid bag? Turn it into a matching friendship bracelet, of course!
In this video, I take the leftover swatch from my Mermaid Bag project and design a completely new bracelet around it. Since the bag uses a blend of very similar blues, purples, and aquamarine colors, figuring out the string order—and even telling some of the colors apart—is part of the challenge.
Using GIMP and my bracelet template, I build an arrowhead-inspired friendship bracelet pattern that keeps the same look and colors as the original bag. I only need to design one section, then use symmetry, copying, and flipping to create the finished pattern.
This is also a good example of how you can move beyond simply following friendship bracelet patterns and start designing your own. A basic arrowhead knot pattern can be changed, flipped, mirrored, and combined with your own color palette to create something completely unique.
And there’s a little secret attached to this project: whoever eventually gets the Mermaid Bag will also get this matching bracelet! If they watch my videos, they’ll know it’s coming. Otherwise, it’ll be a surprise.
Tomorrow we’ll take this pattern off the computer and actually knot the finished bracelet.
If you like this pattern and would like to support my work >>>
The Mermaid Bag swatch is officially a finished friendship bracelet! 🧜♀️🪢
I originally made this swatch to organize all 168 strings for my Mermaid Bag, but once the bag was underway, I couldn’t bring myself to waste it. So I turned those first six rows into the beginning of a completely new bracelet pattern.
The design is essentially an arrowhead pattern surrounded by chevrons. I worked toward the center, flipped the design, and then worked everything back in the opposite direction. The result is a balanced, symmetrical friendship bracelet—and the strings were used surprisingly evenly.
The entire bracelet took a little less than an hour to knot, although I had a six-row head start from the original swatch.
The biggest challenge wasn’t the knots. It was the COLORS.
The Mermaid Bag uses several blues and purples that are extremely close to one another. I made my pattern using the actual bracelet colors, and around the middle it became surprisingly difficult to tell which string was which. This is a perfect example of why I sometimes recommend designing a friendship bracelet pattern in rainbow colors first—even when you have absolutely no intention of making a rainbow bracelet. Distinct colors can make the knot structure and string movement much easier to follow.
You can find the pattern on akaawol.com if you’d like to make this bracelet yourself, experiment with a completely different color combination, or use the design as inspiration for your own friendship bracelet.
And this bracelet already has a future home: whoever purchases the Mermaid Bag will get the matching bracelet with it!
A huge thank you to my YouTube Members. Your support helps provide the embroidery floss and supplies that make these friendship bracelet tutorials, patterns, bags, and experiments possible.
Have a bracelet you’ve seen but can’t find a pattern for? I’m considering taking viewer-submitted bracelet photos, figuring out the knot pattern, and then actually making the bracelet to show how it’s done. Let me know in the comments if that’s something you’d like to see!
Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed the video, hit the Like button, and as always…
Don’t get your strings in a bunch!
#FriendshipBracelet #FriendshipBracelets #BraceletTutorial #ArrowheadBracelet #BraceletPattern #DIYJewelry #Knotting #AKAawol
