We were so lucky to get picked to review this amazing So Styly Friendship Bracelets from Ravensburger to join in their Twitter party this coming Wednesday 28th May between 1 – 2.40 pm. Remember to follow them at @Ravensburgerpc and use hashtag #Getcrafty.
This friendship bracelets is suitable for ages 7 onwards which seems about right. I don’t think this is just for girls though. My son loves it and wants one. He had tried to do it with me but needed plenty of help.
In this box, it comes with 6 sets of threads, 1 friendship bracelet holder, 1 safety pin, 4 fancy beads, 70 round beads and instructions.
When I first opened up the instruction booklet, I was bewildered by the many diagrams and I was at a loss as to where to look. It took me another 10 minutes to understand how to tie forward and backward knots. After my first unsuccessful attempt, wasting a few strands of threads, I quickly got the hang of it.
It comes with a hard cardboard bracelet holder. It is very useful as it comes with diagrams of the forward and backward knots and also a ruler! The holder does move around though so I used a hard object to rest on top of it and even stuck it in between drawers to stop it from moving.
There are eight trendy friendship bracelets to make. The instructions are very clear and easy to follow (once you’ve overcome the initial reaction of bewilderment). The bracelets are categorised as easy (1 star), medium (2 stars) and difficult level (3 stars). Each bracelets took us well over an hour to make as sometimes we would miss a knot or took the wrong colour thread.
We had made this Torsade (1 star) using only forward knots with four different colour threads. At times, we forgot to count how many knots we did! Each strand of thread is used to make 10 forward knots before starting again with another colour strand of thread. This is the simplest bracelet to make and is great for beginners. Mr K enjoyed it and said it is very easy to make! He is so proud of himself!
Next, we made this Bayadere bracelet (1 star) using only forward knots with four different colour threads. Sometime it is hard to get the threads in their correct positions. Other than that, it was very straightforward.
We made this Chevron (2 stars) using forward and backward knots. This is more complicated but after a few practices, we soon got the hang of it. We did miss out a few knots in the middle but the bracelet still looks fine and the mistake is hardly noticeable.
Lastly, we made Ondulation (2 stars) using forward and backward knots with 11 threads. It came out beautifully!
Overall, this is a very comprehensive kit that comes with eight fashionable designs and plenty of threads to make a lot of bracelets! My children loves them and so do I!
Disclosure: We received the sample for the purposes of writing this review, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own.
I used to make these as a child, I still have them and the bag of threads, can’t wait to pass them on to my daughter when she’s a bit older.
Lovely designs. I like the fact there is a holder for the thread. That saves pinning to the sofa or similar.