Plaiting Beaded Bracelet Tutorial

I’ve been asked how to plait this bracelet (pattern here) once it has been finished with the strands all straight. This is a lot easier to explain using pictures, so here’s how I did it:

Start with the chains straight and right side facing you. The fastening will finish up the other way round after one “cycle”.

Seperate the chains evenly (mine is 4, 3, 4)

Cross strand 1 over strand 2

Cross strand 3 over strand 2

Pull strand 3 under strand 2 and keep pulling…

… so that the end follows through behind strand 2 as well. You may need to poke it through a bit!

Looks like a right mess! Pull the top and bottom and try and lay it flat.

Look at the strands. They should look something like this. There is an extra twist between strands 1 and 2 which needs getting rid of.

To untwist 1 and 2, flip the end backwards and through the gap between strand 3 and the other two, and pull down to lay the piece flat.

It should look like this! One plait cycle complete. Strands 3 and 1 have reversed places.

The fastening is now back to front with the “wrong side” facing.

You can repeat this process to make more plaits but you will need to alternate this method with the mirror image of it (i.e. always start with strand 1). Plaiting makes the bracelet shorter so can be a good way of making it fit if it is too long. I don’t think it matters that the wrong side might end up showing, the fastening is not the main feature anyway!