How to Make a Lanyard

Guest Article - by Don Hebert

Originally Published 3/27/2011

This article will show you how to take a length of cord and weave it into a much shorter length. In this example, I started with 8 feet of mini-blind cord (available on Amazon.com and other places) and the finished lanyard is 7 inches long. You can attach the lanyard to whatever you like using S-Biners or any clips, or even just by tying the ends of the cord to the item. If you need a length of cord for whatever reason, all you have to do is pull out the end of the cord from the lanyard and it will unravel as far as you need.

Step one: Screw 3 screws into an old wooden spool. The spool needs to have a hole large enough for the lanyard to pass through. I drilled out the center hole of this spool to 3/8”.

Step two: Tie a knot in the cord and place the cord over one of the screws and wrap the cord around the screws from the inside out.

Step three: Go around the screws a 2nd time in the same inside out manner.

Step four: Using a piece of wire, nail, hook, etc. (I used a yarn loom hook I bought at Wal-Mart for under a dollar) and take the bottom loop over the top loop and off of the screw, leaving the top loop on the screw. Do this for all 3 screws. Continue looping and hooking until either the lanyard is as long as you want or you run out of cord.

As you work, the lanyard will start coming out of the hole in the spool.

When you have either run out of cord or the lanyard is as long as you want it, take the cord loops off of the spool.

Take care at this point as if you pull the loose end from the top, it’ll unravel. Pass the S-Biner through all 3 of the loops and then take the loose end and weave it down inside the lanyard tucking the end inside. Do the same for the other loose end.

The finished lanyard, attached to my new Gerber Trendy knife.