How to Make Hemp Jewelry Tutorial

I am not an aficionado of using hemp twine for jewelry because it's too coarse-looking and feel too rough on my skin, but I recently found a simple macramé tutorial which uses hemp to create flat knots and half knots. So instead of using hemp and clunky beads, I would substitute Gudebrod silk cording (size FF or FFF) and sparkly 6mm or 8mm crystal beads for the simple techniques shown in this lovely tutorial.
To learn micro-macramé, I scrounged second-hand shops for old macramé pamphlets and found reprints of Victorian macramé books and magazine articles on eBay. One time I found a 70's pamphlet with a back cover photo of a gorgeous (to me, at least) curtain panel featuring knotted leaves cascading down in rows. When I got the pamphlet home I couldn't find that particular project in its pages, so I had to reverse engineer the design; here's what I came up with.

A Sleight of Hand With a Bit of String

Check out this June 10, 2009 New York Times article on macramé!


Love this quote from Alexa Adams:


"Moving it away from what people expect, and making it look more futuristic. Most people don’t even realize it’s macramé."

Macraméd Hand Towel

I found a terrycloth hand towel with a macramé edging at a second-hand store the other day. This is the original purpose for macramé - to edge linens, but I'd never seen a modern terrycloth one. Perhaps they were all the rage in the 70's and I missed the trend. Oh, I must be so provincial...

Cavandoli Knotting

Well, it's about time I learned to do more advanced Cavandoli Knotting (she says, hanging her head in abject shame) so I bought Joan Babcock's DVD. I'll report back on my findings there.



In the meantime, check out this darling little owlie on Craftzine.com's blog.

Threads Back Cover: Macrame Dress

Threads magazine, IMO the absolute best magazine devoted to sewing, is the only publication I have subscribed to for over 20 years. If anything is responsible for teaching me to sew better and actually pay attention to what I am creating in cloth, it is Threads.

On the back cover of the July 2009 edition there are photos of a macrame dress.



















Possibly it was a 1930's wedding gift from South America. A knotted dress. What an undertaking!

Detachable Micro-Macrame for a Blouse

My brilliant and most artistic friend Karin has come up with a delicious idea: create a detachable micro-macrame frontispiece for a handsewn blouse. Here is an in-progress shot of a modified kitschy baroque bracelet being used to frame a neckline:

Macrame: Ancient Art Made New

Check out this new article by Karen Schmidt over on Handmade News