Learn how to make your own square Macrame drinks coaster - with a fun coloured stripe!

1. Class Intro: [MUSIC] Hi, I'm Megan, and I'm self-taught macrame artist. I'm also the owner and creator of my own little business, Luna Crafts Online. In today's class, I'm going to show you how to make these really cute squared macrame coasters of each of these colored stripes running through it as well. You can add any color you like. I also think they make a great gift for friends and family. Make them in pack of four, do different colored for each stripes. [MUSIC] They are both equally as pretty to me, and I can't wait to show you how to make them. I created my small business, Luna Crafts Online back in December 2018. Since then I've fallen more and more in love with macrame and fiber arts, and the process of creating the spoke wall hangings. I've found creating something with my hands, very therapeutic and relaxing. I'd love to now be able to teach other people about this craft, and hopefully inspire others to be creative. My hope is that my lessons will teach you some basic notes and patterns, so that you'll be able to create your own wall hanging, plant hangers, and even macrame bags. Not only for yourself, but for friends and family too, as I make really amazing gifts. Some of my other hobbies include yoga, running, baking, and houseplants. I have probably about 60 houseplants, so I have a lot of different macrame plant hanger tutorials to share with you. I really hope you learned some techniques from me, so you're all able to create your own unique, beautiful wall hangings. [MUSIC] 2. Supplies & Materials: Let's go over the supplies and materials that you'll need. You need eight lots of 50 centimeter lengths of cord. I'm using 3 millimeter for mine. Two lots of 250 centimeter lengths of cord. You'll need a wooden dowel or you can even use a wooden spoon handle because this is just temporary. We remove this at the end, so it's just something circular to add the cords onto. Some scissors, a tape measure, and, of course, you will need some colored cord for your stripes. I'm using this nice powder blue chord, and it's up to you which color you use. But for that, you will need 150 centimeter length of cord. As always, all the measurements and everything will be written down in the class description. You'll need some fabric glue. This is optional, but it's good for a neater finish and also something like pliers just to hold the cord down before the glue dries. This is also optional a wire brush or a comb. This is a bamboo wire brush specifically for macrame, which works really well at spitting on the fibers but it's optional for the fringe at the end. 3. Attaching the cords using a Larks head knot: We're going to grab our eight lots of 50-centimeter lengths of cord and our dowel and we're going to attach to them using a larks head knot. We're going to take one cord and split it in half. Take the middle point over your dowel like this, and then pass it behind just like this. Then you pass these two cords through the loop there. Then just pull that to tighten it and that is a larks head knot. That's the very most basic knot that you need to learn. Go ahead and do that for the rest of our 50 centimeter lengths of white cord. You should have eight in total going along your dowel. This is a really great knot to learn in macrame because this is the knot that you'll typically use to attach your cord to a dowel or a branch or even a wooden hoop. It's a great knot to learn and it's super easy as well. We're just going to continue doing that with all of our 50 centimeter lengths of cord [MUSIC] until you have something that looks like this, so that it will attach to the dowel. 4. Making the main body of the coaster - Double Clove Hitch knot: Now to make up the body of the chords, we're going to use double clove pitch no, t so I'm grabbing one long of my 250 centimeter length of chord, and I'm having it like this. There's a small part on the left here and the rest of the chord is on the right. I'm going to take these first two chords just like that and bring them over that chord, I'll just move it slightly to the left so you can see it easier. The long 250 centimeter length of chord is underneath. Then you're going to bring over the two chords like this to create this capital D shape. Then with a bunch of chords, you're going to pass it under the two chords and then through this loop here. It might look a bit tricky at first, but just take your time. Then just like that. You've got this nice loop and we're going to pull that to the top of the work. We're going to repeat the exact same steps as we don't just then. I bring it over to the left to create this capital D shape. Pass the chords under the two chords and through the loop that's on the right, and then just pull that to the top to tighten it against that first knot, and that is one double-clove hitch knot that you have created. As the only other knot that you will need for this chords, so it's super easy. Then again, I'm taking the next two chords. We're going to bring them over and on top of the long chord. Just like this, and just move everything out of the way so you can see it a bit easier. Again, bring the code over to the left to create a capital D and then pass chords underneath and through the loop. It's super easy to create this knot. You just need to remember to repeat it twice on each chords, so you create the double-clove hitch knot, and then just again sliding the next two chords over and creating the knot in the exact same way. [MUSIC] A good thing to do as well is to have something heavy to pin down your dowel so it doesn't move around too much. If I wasn't filming this, I would normally put my laptop on top of it and that would help me to pull the knots a bit tighter and not have the dowel slide around as much, so it just makes it easier. Just going to carry on doing this double-clove hitch knots along all of the rest of my chords till we get to the end just like this. Now it's time to flip it and go towards the left. In order to do so, we're going to pass the chord underneath two chords like this. Then it, with this chord, we're going to create a little scalloped edge so you can see if you pull it tight, it creates a smallest scallop, and then if you leave it longer, it would create a bigger scallop. In order to go towards the left, you need a backwards D. We're going to pass the chord in front of those two chords and on the right to create a backwards D shape. Then again, just pass the chords under the two chords and through the loop there, just like we've done on the other way. Then again, just pull that tight and then I'm just readjusting it to get the little scallop that I want. I wanted it a little smaller than that so that's perfect. Then I'm passing it to the right to create that backwards D shape, and again, pausing it underneath and through the loop, just like that. That's how you create the knot going towards the left. It's super easiest, it just to backwards D instead of a normal D. You see we've got this lovely little scallop shape on the edge now. The scallop is optional. You can just pull, tie, and not have any little loop there, but I think adds a nice little detail so I like to leave them in. Then again, just going towards the left now using that backwards D shape. It's a good project to do if you're watching TV or Netflix or something, to just have it on in the background so you can just watch things as you go. I'm just going to continue going back and forth until I've used up all of my 250 centimeter length of chord ode or until there's just not enough to do one more row. It looks something like this. Perfect. There's not enough to do one more row. Now we can go ahead and grab our colored chord and add that in. [MUSIC] 5. Adding in the coloured stripe: Grab the colored cord. I'm going to be adding this in, but it's important to remember what direction you are going in. I was going towards the left. I'm just putting a small amount of cord on the right, like that, of the tail Then I'm creating that backwards D-shaped and then passing it under and through the gap. [MUSIC] You won't have a scallop to put in this part as you're adding in a cord, but that's fine. I think it still creates a nice-looking coaster in the end. Again, I'm just going to repeat that twice on each cord. [MUSIC] Just like so. Then I'm just going to repeat that going the whole length of the coaster until I get to the other end. My cord was actually, I cut it too long because I didn't know how long to cut it. Yours will be a bit shorter than this so you won't have as much cord wastage. But of course, if you wanted to create two rows of stripes, you could just double the length of the cords. Cut it to 90 or 100 centimeters long and you could do two rows of the struct cord. [MUSIC] Then I'm just snipping off the excess cords. [MUSIC] 6. Carrying on with the pattern: After we've added in that stripe of the colored cord, we're just going to grab our last lot of 250-centimeter length and we're just going to. Again, start off the exact same way because we're going towards the right now. But if you're going towards the left, then you do it that way. [MUSIC] You should know the drill by now we're just creating a little tail at the end like that and creating this D-shape, and then parting the cords under and through the loop. I'm repeating twice with each cord. It's super easy to create. If you wanted you could even add more cords on to make it longer coaster, or instead of doing the eight original cords at the top, if you added in nine or 10 cords it would make it a bit wider as well, so you could get a wider square if you wanted but I thought this was quite a cute size so this is why I stuck with this. Just continue doing this until you've used up all of this 250-centimeter length of cord, and then we can go ahead and do all the final finishing touches and go up to the class project. [MUSIC] 7. Trimming & combing out the fringe: You guys it should look something like this once it's finished and now we can just go ahead and remove the coaster from whatever circular object you're using. In this case, I'm just going to slide it off the dowel. The easiest way to do that I find is just to grab the whole piece with one hand and then gently slide and twist out the dowel. Take the time with it, perfect. [MUSIC] Once you've done that, you'll be left with these loops on one side so you can just unroll them like this and then we're just going to snip them off so you don't need to worry about the fiber there. Now I'm going to go ahead and grab my scissors. I'm just going to do a rough cut for now just to get the limp. You can just determine how long you want your tassels to be. I think I'm caught in mind to around two centimeters to start off with, and then I'll cut them out and then I'll do a final trim after that. [MUSIC] Just like that and then we can go ahead and turn that around and trim off the other side as well. [MUSIC] Though I trimmed mine to about two centimeters long. If you wanted to do the exact same. Again, I'm just going to go ahead and cut the other side now just to get off of that limp so it's easier to come out [MUSIC] just like that. With these long ends here I'm just going to snip them so it's easier to glue them down. We can just flip it over and we're going to grab our fabric glue and our pliers or wherever you're going to use to hold it down. We're just going to blue each cord down, so I'm just flipping it back on itself just like this, so it looks nice and neat as well and you won't see it from the front, and I'm just putting a few drops of glue and I'm going to hold the cord down into the glue so it dries. You don't have to hold it for very long if you're using this glue, I just found out a few seconds, just helps you to secure a better bond. Just like that, and then I'm just going to go around the whole coaster gluing down all of those loose ends. It looks nice and neat like this, and then we can just wipe the glue to dry before moving onto our last finishing touches. Now that the glue is all dry, I'm going to go ahead and flip it over to the nice side. The right side is facing up and you can see it looks nice and neat from this side you don't see any of those cords either. Now I'm going to brush out my tassels. I'm grabbing my wire brush like this and then I'm just going to start combing out the tassels. It's a good idea to flip it over as well and brush from the other side too, just to make sure you're getting every cord that you can making it get nice and fluffy and then turn it round and repeat it on the other side. [MUSIC] Perfect, just like that. Now I'm going to go ahead and take my scissors and we're just going to give it one last final trim just to make sure it's nice and neat. [MUSIC] Obviously, the combing out is optional, you could leave that out and you could even cut tassels shorter if that was more of your style. It's really up to you how you design your coaster and everything. Just adjust it to your liking, and that is the coaster complete. It's a super easy coaster to create. Of course, if you wanted, you could add in three colored stripes, which I think would look really nice as well. Or you could just do it all white if you wanted, if you didn't want to add in that extra color, just add the 50 centimeters onto one of your 250 centimeter lengths of cord. We can now move on to the final shots and the class project. [MUSIC] 8. Final thoughts & class project: I thought I would just go over the measurements that my coaster is in case you wanted to create your slightly longer or wider, it's easy to do so. Just add on more cord or add on more rows of double crochet knots. My coaster measured about eight centimeters wide, and not including tassels, it was about eight centimeters and then including the tassels, it was about 12, 12.5 centimeters. If you wanted, you could even make it nine or 10 centimeters long by adding either nine. Lots of 50 centimeter cords onto your dowel, or 10 lots of 50 centimeter cords onto your dowel if you wanted to create a bigger coaster. I think these would look really lovely in groups of four with a different color for each coaster. These are some of the colors that I would use if I was doing that. I would like a nice green color and then a terracotta. Then we've got this lovely purple and of course the blue that I used in today's class. I think they're really nice combination. They're some of my favorite colors as well. I think I would do that if I was making this for a friend or family, for a birthday. Now its time to just make yourself a nice cup of tea. You've earned it and put it on your nice new coaster. I really hope you enjoy this class and if you can check now, all my other Skillshare classes, that would be great because I also have one teaching you how to make a circular macrame coaster if you're more interested in that one. But of course, they're both very different and I quite like both of them for different things. I like to use the circular one for jewelry and then I like this one for my mugs. For the class project, I'd like you to create your own square macrame coasters so you could customize it however you wanted. You can make them wider, you can make them longer. You could add in more colored stripes. You could just create them all white. But whatever you do, I'd really love for you to share your progress pictures and final pictures in the class project section down below, because I'd really love to follow along your journey and see your final result. Thanks again for following this class and I hope you have a lovely week.