Beginner friendly small macrame bag

Beginner friendly small macrame bag

This tutorial is the ultimate beginner friendly project as it only uses one basic knot. It can be made using a variety of different cords and can vary in size: It can be used as a mini pouch bag, to a purse, and even backpack.



Although you can use practically any cord to make it, be sure to use a non-twisted cord ( no 2 or 3 ply ones ) as it will be very hard to open the top of it. For this project, I used the single ply 100% recycled Eco-Home cotton cord from Stenli Yarn. Unlike my other projects, I opted this one to be a little bit more vividly colored, and chose to blend purple and blue together.

1. The first step consists of cutting two evenly sized cords, folding them in half and placing them one inside the other, allowing 10-15 cm of space at the ends. The first few steps are best done on a hard, flat surface.
   
   
    
2. In order to reduce movement and allow you to work more efficiently, you’ll then place some sellotape on each where the cords meet. It could be four small pieces of tape on each corner, or two bigger pieces.
   
   
   
    
3. You then cut 20 equal strands of cotton cord. For my project each cord measured a little over 40 cm. If you want to make your project using two colors, then you need to cut 10 cords in one color and 10 cords in the other color.
   
   
   
    
4. Your next step would be to start attaching the cut pieces of cords to the other two, attached to the flat surface with sellotape. You will do this by making lark’s head knots.
   
   
    
5. One you attach the two first lark’s head knots, you continue the same process until you have 10 of these knots on your cord.
   
   
    
6. You then repeat step 4 and 5 on the remaining cord that’s attached to the flat surface with sellotape. You attach the cut cords with lark’s head knots until you reach a total of 10.
   
   
    
7. You then carefully remove the sellotape from the sides of the project and attach it to a dowel, to make it easier to complete the next few steps. It’s best to put some more sellotape on the dowel itself to prevent it from moving.
    
    
8. You start making square knots across the attached cotton cords until you have used all of them, for a total of 5 square knots.
   
    
    
9. You then turn your design, and repeat step 8 on the other side as well. You should have 5 square knots on each side of the project.
   
    
10. You attach the front side of the project to the back side of it by making a square knot on the side, using the first and second cords of the first square knot on both sides of the project, and the third and fourth cords of the last square knots on both sides.
    
    
     
11.  You then continue to make square knots by using the third and fourth cord of the first square knot and the first and second cord of the second square knot. If you want the bag to store larger items, you can leave some space in between the rows of square knots and vis versa.
    
    
     
12. Upon finishing row 2, you can move down to row 3 and do the same or start another row on the other side of the project.
    
    
     
13. Whatever you choose to do, make sure to always combine both sides of the project with a square knot.
    
    
     
14. You continue to make square knots on both sides until you have made 5 rows of them on each side. If you want to make a larger bag you can continue making more rows until you reach your desired length.
    
     
     
15. To start tying off the bag, you take the two blue cords, one from each side of the project and tie two knots.
     
    
     
16. You repeat the previous step by making another two knots with the next cord from each side of the project.
    
    
     
17. You then take the third and fourth cord of the first square knot with the first and second cord of the second square knot in your hand. Make sure you take the relevant parallel cords from the other side in your hand as well.
    
    
     
18. You then make a cross with two cords of the back that are in your hand, bring them forward and use them to create a square knot with all the cords in your hand from the previous step.
    
    
     
19. Make sure that the tension of all the cords in the square knot is equal, by pulling or releasing where necessary.
    
    
     
20. You continue making square knots with both sides of the project. For the second square knot, you take the third and the fourth cord of the second square knot, with the first and second cord of the third square knot and repeat step 17 to 19.
    
    
     
21. At the end of this step, you will have made a total of four square knots at the bottom of the bag.
     
     
22. You then proceed to take the right last cord with the left first cord of each square knot and tie two knots in between the spacing to make sure the bottom part of the bag doesn’t have any unwanted gaps.
    
    
     
23. You will need to cut the dangling cords. Make sure you leave at least one to two centimeters between the knot and the cut to prevent the knots from unfurling.
    
     
24. Flip the bag inside out so that the cords are inside the bag.
    
    
     
25. If you want, you can add some wooden beads to the closing mechanism of the bag to give it a more boho style.
    
    
     
26. You then cut any additional cords that are too long and voila, you just made your first small macrame bag!