Jewelry, Kids Crafts, The Craft Lab

Gimp Bracelets – A Throwback to the 90s

Posted by skillfulmeeple on

It’s summer and no better way to celebrate than by making bracelets. Last year I did a post on making friendship bracelets. This time I thought I would do a bit of a 90s throwback and switch it up with some plastic lace. I found a pack at Dollarama for $2 and felt it was worth a trip down memory lane. I loved making bracelets as a kid and think it’s worth revisiting, especially with how little it costs. The $2 pack made a lot of bracelets and the plastic doesn’t rip so it’s very easy to restart if there’s any mistakes.

To get started I have basic instructions for three options. The most important thing to remember for all of them is to keep the lace from twisting.

  1. The Zipper Stitch

This bracelet is the easiest, it’s just a weave in and out. You’ll need three pieces, two a bit longer than the length you want for the bracelet and the third piece should be twice as long as the other two pieces. Tie them together in a knot to start. The two short pieces are going to stay as they are, the long piece you will weave through.

This type of bracelet is the easiest, just weave around the two short pieces.
For it to look good keep the strings tight

The Butterfly Stitch

This is a little trickier but not by much. Cut two pieces around the length of your arm span. Tie a knot at the top. Grab a colour and create a loop, take the other colour and wrap it around, then create a loop and pull that through. From there all you have to do is continuously pull alternating loops through.

Make a purple loop, pull it through the pink
Tighten the pink loop
Create a pink loop
Pull the pink loop through the purple
tighten the purple loop

The Box Stitch

This is the one you were probably thinking about when you read Gimp Bracelets. the beginning of this one is a bit rough but once you got it started, it’s just as repetitive as the others. I used two pieces of double arm span for this. Overall once you have the first knot you are just going over under for this one.

Wrap one colour around your finger, make sure it’s the middle of the string
Pull the second colour underneath, also make sure it’s in the middle
Take the right black string and put it over the orange string on the right and under the orange string on the left
Take the end of the black string on the left and pull it over the orange string on the left and under the orange string on the right
Gently pull it off of your finger and tighten the strings(this may take a couple tries)
This is what it looks like after a while
You are folding over the orange pieces in opposite directions
Then folding the black pieces over and under in opposite directions
Once you have this set up you can tighten and do it again

Admittedly this one took me a couple tries to really get down. Once you jog your memory it comes back pretty quick.

That’s three bracelet options with different levels of difficulty to try. All look great and are a fun summer project. A great reminder of how fun it was to be a kid.

If you like bracelets, try some other classic friendship bracelets:

Rubberband bracelet

Three Basic Friendship Bracelets

3 Different Friendship Bracelets

4 Comments Add yours

  1. Pingback: 3 Different Friendship Bracelets – The Skillful Meeple
  2. Pingback: Rubber Band Bracelet – The Skillful Meeple
  3. Pingback: Friendship Bracelets – The 3 Basics – The Skillful Meeple
  4. Mary says:
    April 17, 2024 at 9:57 am

    Made these in 1956 at Salvation Child center on Oakwood Ave. Syracuse, NY

    hersheybuddy@gmail.com

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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