Making friends (DIY paracord)

Paracord buddies are easy to make in lots of variations.

For geocaching I designed the Geobuddy, just by adding a small wooden gps in its hands.
With beads or other attributes you can make buddies for all occasions: Dutch buddy, horse friend, musical friend or rowing buddy.
They are great as personalised gifts and fundraisers.

I have made photo's of all the steps, an overview and at the end of this blog you'll find a video with instructions.
So you can choose how to learn making new friends :-)

What do you need:

Piece of Paracord 50 cm for body and arms
Piece of Paracord 30 cm for legs
Wooden bead, 15 mm for head
Keyring or clip
Marker, paint or Pyrograf for making the face
Scissors
Lighter to fuse the end of the cord

Start

Take a small piece of paracord and remove the white inner cord.
Use one pices of this whit he cord to pull the blue cord for the legs through the bead.
Attach the ring/clip on the top of the head.

Step 1
For the body we use the Cobra knot. Working from feet to thead.
Right coloured cord goes behind the blue. Then from left to right on top of blue.
From right side over the coloured cord, under the blue cord and again over the coloured.

Tighten the knot.

Step 2

Left side coloured cord goes under the blue over the coulored cord.

Right side coloured cord goes over the blue legs and on the other side under the coloured.

Tighten the second knot

Step 3
Repeat step 1
Right coloured part goes under the blue cord and over the coloured cord at the left side.

Left part over the blue and under the coloured cord at the right side.

Step 4
Repeat step 2

Left side coloured cord goes under the blue over the coulored cord.

Right side coloured goes over the blue legs and on the other side under the coloured.

Stop untill you've 5 or 6 knots and move the knots against the head.

Make a simple knot in the arms and legs.
Cut off the rest.

Use a lighter to fuse the hands and feet.

It is also possible to use other material for the buddies. For example textile noodles or other cord.

If you do not have a pyrograf set you can also use paint to make the heads.

There're also beads available with the face already painted. Bear and panda heads are also on the market.

Or maybe a lego head?
The hole may be to small for the complete paracord.
You could remove the inner cord from the cord for the legs. That results in a much smaller cord and it will fit.

This is a tree with horsebuddies for display at fundraising events for Prince Fluffy Kareem.
If you like to order them (or other stuff), we have an Etsyshop !

Maybe you prefer to watch a video to learn how to make these guys :-)

This is the video who taught me ;-)

This blog tutorial is made buy Milliefluffy

Maybe it is easy to print this one picture with all instructions you need: