DIY Macrame

I’ve always seen macrame on Pinterest and wanted to do it but never really had the time or patience. But now I do. I knew this piece would complete a big blank wall in our new apartment so I went for it.

Is DIY macrame easy?

YES. At least the one that I’m showcasing. It’s one simple knot and only two types of material. I would say on a scale of 1 to 10, this is a 1. You can really customize this style with different colors, types of material and size of it.

How do you make your own macrame?

I’m glad you asked! First, I found a picture on Pinterest that I loved and knew I would be able to do. I didn’t want anything complicated but wanted more of a statement piece. There are some pieces that you do a lot of knot work and that’s just not something I wanted. So I found one, took a screenshot, and added it to my wall virtually first. I wanted to make sure I actually liked it before spending hours on it.

What kind of material do you need for macrame?

Now was time to buy the materials. I knew I needed a dowel (the wooden stick) and yarn. I had some old macrame string from a while back and knew it was somewhere in our garage too. That’s the one I ended up using as my accent color. Here’s everything I ended up getting:

The dowel: I went to Lowe’s and got a 48inx0.5in dowel. It is so much cheaper to buy here. Like $1.50. Crazy. You can get a different size if you want a smaller macrame piece as well. Again, I wanted something to cover the width of a wall so mine was rather large.

The yarn: I went online and hoped that I chose the right color. I did a cream yarn because that would fit with my decor. You, of course, pick any color you want here. I like the neutrals because it will always match with everything. The cording was also at Michael’s with the yarn.

Scissors: To cut.

I didn’t really measure anything either. I just knew that my wall was 60in so that’s why I went with a 48in rod. I wanted it to cover most of the wall but not all of it.

How much material do you need for macrame?

That is totally dependent on how big you want the piece. For mine, I used all of the yarn and cording that I bought with a tiny bit left. Smaller projects will require less yarn. I always say it’s better to buy more than less. You can always return what you don’t use or save it and use it for a new project. These will make great little gifts!

Now for the fun part: putting it all together!

DIY Easy Macrame

You’ll want to make sure you have an idea of how long you want everything. Highly recommend doing my botch job of copy and pasting a pic to where you want it. LOL.

Step 1: Hang your dowel up where you want it.

I used the string like this first so I would be able to reach. I’m 5’1 so there was no way I could go any higher haha! Get that dowel on a nail, trust me. It’s easier to tie the knots when it’s hung up instead of laying it on a table.

Step 2: Tie your knot!

Start out with a loop. Make sure the loop is the mid-point of the string.

Bring the loop to the back a bit. This will leave room for you to make the knot.

Pull the string through the loop. Then you’ll pull it tight to make the knot! Easy peasy.

Again, I chose a really simple knot. This is the only tying you will have to do. So now you keep repeating until you’ve filled up your entire dowel. I ended up finding my other macrame string in my garage so I incorporated that in as well.

So you’ll keep doing that knot again and again. You can keep the length all the same or you can switch it up. I noticed as I started cutting it just kept getting shorter and went with it.

Here’s the final product!

Definitely not perfect, but I love it! It fills up our wall and really ties the area together. I would say total this probably took me 4-6 hours. I split it up and did about an hour a day for 5 days.

Enjoy!