DIY Macramé Wall Hanging Welcome Mandala Wreath

Supplies:

Circle. I found this circle with the word welcome inside at Dollar Tree.

Cord. I purchased mine from Joann Fabrics, but it was not quite enough to finish the piece, and I needed to buy a second.

Scissors

Rulers

Comb to fine brush out the ends

Optional: wood beads. I purchased mine from Dollar Tree.

This may look intimidating, especially if you have never done anything like this before, but it really was not too difficult. There is a lot of repetition, so it is time consuming. I used a circular welcome sign I found at Dollar Tree, but you could also leave the center open or put a round mirror in the center. You could even go back to my rope baskets post and see how to dye or spray paint the cord. You can find the links here.

I used 2mm thick craft cord I found at JoAnn Fabrics. I thought the 100 foot would be long enough, but it was just shy of what was needed for my 8 inch size circle. I started out by cutting my cord about 24 inches long. You will need 8 pieces of cord (each about 24 inches long) for each design section. I had 8 sections in total. So that means you will need a total of 64 strands of cord that are about 24 inches long, if you use an 8 inch circle like I did.

Since I had never tired Macramé before, I found another crafter’s video and followed her. Melanie Ham was the YouTube channel I found and followed. She was very easy to follow. After I did my first piece I got a better understanding on how to make each section of the design. My first one was loose and thus that design is bigger than all the others. So, if this is your first time, then I recommend practicing once or twice first. You could practice on your actual circle, just remove your practices before you cut the extra cord.

Once you have all your cords cut, you will need to make a larks head knot with all 8 of your cords. It will be easier to follow my video I made of me making my first section. You can find that video on my YouTube channel by clicking here.

Next you will make a square knot with the 2 center cords. Then make another square knot with the two cords just to the right of your center cords. Then one more square knot with the 2 cords just to the left of your center cords. Make sure you pull everything nice and tight. You will now do two more square knots to connect the three square knots you just made together. You then need one more square knot in the center.

You will then make two passes of half hitch knots on both sides. Make one pass of half hitch knots on the right side, then the left side before doing the second pass of half hitch knots. The cord you have not used yet will be the lead cord for this.

If you do not want to add the wood bead, then you can just close up your half hitch knots. If you want to add the wood bead, then you will need to feed the wood bead through your two center cords. The dollar tree wood beads were a bit difficult to do this with, since they were so small. Using a large tapestry needle can be helpful to feed the wood bead through the cords. I was only able to get one cord through the center of my bead. I then just tied a double knot to help hold my wood bead in place.

Now cut any extra cord off. So, whichever cord is your shortest, you cut all the others down to that size. Next, unravel your cord ends, and run a fine brush through the ends. Do any last needed trimming to your ends. A sharp pair of scissors works best, which I do not have. Also look at the other sections you have finished to insure all the sections are uniform. I need to do a bit more of this on mine. Then repeat all of these steps for the other 8 sections or however many you need for your piece.

I was very surprised how easy this design was to replicate. It was time consuming, and involved a lot of repetition. I think I need to go back and trim a few more of my ends. There are some that are still pretty long. You can tell which design was the first one I did, but I think the rest look pretty uniform. So, I probably should have taken the first one off and redid it. Since this piece is just for myself, I will probably just leave that alone and not redo it. I am just going to go back and trim some of the edges and make them more symmetrical.