Effortlessly Hide a Sliding Knot on Your Bracelet | My Pro Tip

Do you love the convenience of a sliding knot on a bracelet or necklace but you don’t like the look?  This tutorial will show you what you can do to cover the knot and make it look pretty while you’re wearing a bracelet with a sliding knot.  In the process, I’m going to be making a pretty crystal bracelet.

When I initially thought about making this bracelet, I decided to use the blue waxed cord to thread the beads onto so that you could all see it clearly in the video.  What happened after that is that I fell in love with the way it looked and I decided to keep it like that. 

Leave me a comment below and tell me whether you love it as much as I do.

Materials

Here are the materials I used to make bracelet:

• Chinese Crystal Glass Rondelle 8mm x 6mm Crystal Clear x23* 
• Beaded Rondelle 5mm x 1mm - Tibetan Silver x22*
• Waxed Polyester Round Twisted Cord 1mm Steel Blue x1 metre 
• Fancy Tube Bead 12mm x 7mm Antique Silver x1 

*The number of beads you need will depend on the size of your wrist.  This fits my wrist which measures 16.5cm. Add or decrease the number of beads as required.

Tools

The only tools you will need is a sharp pair of scissors. The ones I used in the video are from my Chroma pliers set. 

Instructions

Watch the video or follow the step by step instructions below.

Thread on the Beads

Cut a piece approximately 10cm (4”) off the end of the cord.  Thread on the beads starting with a crystal rondelle, then a metal rondelle. Repeat that pattern until all the beads have been threaded onto the cord.

You may need to increase or decrease the number of beads, depending on the size of your wrist.

The most important thing to remember here is that you want to start and finish with a crystal bead so that you don’t have the metal spacer up against the tube bead.

Test the Length

Place the bracelet around your wrist, cross the cord and pull it up to ensure that it is the correct size for you.  It should fit almost perfectly. Remember you will add 12mm to the size of the bracelet when you add the tube bead.

Put on the Tube Bead

The tube bead is the real star of the show here. It’s the bead that will cover the sliding knot.  You need to make sure that you choose a bead with a hole large enough for the knot to go through. Generally, if your cord can go through it 4 times with a bit of room, that will work.

Thread the ends of the cord through the tube bead in opposite directions that the cord crosses inside the bead. You can test the size again now if you wish.

Tie a Sliding Knot

If you can, watch the video for this as it’s much easier to see what’s happening.

I’ll do my best to describe it – here goes!

Slide the knot down to one side of the beads. Hold the bracelet with the two pieces of cord side by side. Do not let them cross.

Fold the 10cm piece of cord you cut off in half and lay that beside the other two pieces of cord.

Hold it all in your non-dominant hand.

Take the long tail closest to you in your dominant hand and wrap it away from you and back through the loop of the bracelet 4 times, making sure that they don’t cross over each other. Leave them loose as you want to thread the cord through them.

Now take the long end that you’ve been wrapping around and thread it through all the loops, then thread it through the loop of the shorter piece of cord.

You can put your thumb over the wraps to keep them all nice and secure while you do this.

I know that this looks like a hot mess in the pictures but it all comes together nicely once you pull it up. I was trying not to put my thumb over it to pull it up which makes it much easier and neater. 

Slowly pull the long end, holding everything else with your thumb.  As you pull, adjust the loops so that they sit nice and evenly.

See, I told you it would all come together.

Make sure that it still slides by pulling the end.

Note: Only one end moves.

Hiding the Knot

When you put the bracelet on and pull up the ends it will hide the knot but first there’s a few more steps.

Put two of the ends to the right and two of the ends to the left side.  Thread the two ends closest to the tube through the tube bead.

You should have two of the ends coming out each side of the tube bead.

When you pull it all up closely, the knot will pop inside the tube bead.

Trim the Ends

Tie off the two short pieces, making a small knot close to the end of each piece.

Remember that only one of the long cord ends moves, so ensure that end is long enough to allow for the bracelet to go over your hand.

For me, I found that I could cut my ends the same when the bracelet was closed and my hand could still fit through. Tie a knot in each of the long ends.

You could put a little bead on the ends, if you can find one with a hole large enough for the cord to go through.

Don’t worry about the ends being a bit stiff. As you wear them they will soften.

And here’s what it looks like on.

Jewellery I’m Wearing

In this week’s video I’m wearing my Garden Inspired Butterfly and Leaf Necklace.

The earrings I’m wearing were made from the components of the necklace.  Let me know in the comments section below if you want me to do a quick video of how I made them.

The bracelet I’m wearing is the Snail Shell Bead Wire Wrapped Loop Bracelet.

I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial. Let me know if you made this one, or other pieces using the sliding knot where you can use this technique to hide it.