Fortunately, this easiest of all easy macrame plant hangers takes a little less than one episode of Welcome to Night Vale to make, so by the time my college kid and I caught up on all the episodes she missed during her study-abroad semester, I had made myself an entire fleet of plant hangers to get all my dangly inch plant vines and bushy spider plant babies off of my counters and out of my way. Now I just need to convince my partner to put another set of curtain rods in front of a couple more windows so I can fill them with even more hanging plants… But that’s a problem for Future Julie! For now, I’ll just show you how to make these super easy plant hangers, so get your favorite 27-minute podcast queued up and let’s get started!
Materials
To make these easy macrame plant hangers, you will need:
cording. I’ve used everything from paracord to embroidery floss for macrame, but the gold standard–and what I’m using in this particular project–is 4mm cotton macrame cord. I love that it’s a natural option, unlike paracord, but it’s only really good for indoor use. If you want an outdoor plant hanger AND you want it to last for several years, you do want to go with paracord. measuring and cutting supplies. You’ll need a ruler or yard stick and scissors. Add a lighter if you’re using paracord. split ring (optional). I’m not using it for this project, but I do often put a split ring (also sometimes called key chain rings) at the top of my plant hangers. It helps the weight hang more evenly on the cording, but none of the plant pots I’m hanging here are very heavy, so I’m not worried about it.
Step 1: Cut the cording and find the middle.
Cut four pieces of cording to about 72 inches, and another two pieces of cording to about 20 inches. Gather the four long pieces of cording together, and fold them in half. Double-check that they’re all pretty even. Arrange the cording so that it makes a nice loop at the fold, like in the image above.
Step 2: Tie a gathering knot to make the hanging loop.
This is the trickiest knot you’ll have to do to make this plant hanger, and it’s also super easy! Take one of the 20-inch pieces of cording, and arrange it like you see in the above image. You want a tail sticking up towards the hanging loop, a nice, long loop below where the body of the knot will be, and a nice, long tail stretching out to the side. Take that tail and start wrapping it tightly around the gathered cording, leaving just a bit of that top tail still sticking out. Wrap and wrap and wrap and wrap until you’ve got a couple of inches of cord left. Tuck that through the bottom loop, just like you see in the above photo. Now, remember that top tail sticking out? You’re going to pull pretty firmly on that tail. Watch that the bottom end of the cording doesn’t sneak out of the loop! What you want to see is that bottom loop getting pulled up inside the wrapped cording, taking that little bottom tail that’s tucked into the loop with it. You don’t want to pull the loop all the way out of the top; instead, pull it just until it’s about halfway up, and then trim the top tail. Now your knot is tucked nicely inside the wrapped cords, and you have a tidy hanging loop for your planter!
Step 3: Tie the first set of knots.
Measure down about 10 inches from the top of the gathering knot. That’s where your first set of knots is going to sit. Choose two adjacent cords–I used two colors for this plant hanger so you could see my knots better–and keeping them gathered together, tie a single overhand knot at the 10-inch mark and pull it tight. If you’re thinking that you don’t know how to do an overhand knot, you definitely do. Just think of the world’s most basic knot, and you’ve got it! Two by two, separate out the rest of the cords and also tie overhand knots in them. You’re aiming for them all to be the same length, but as you can see in the photo above, it’s really not that big of a deal to have a couple of mismeasured knots, ahem.
Step 4: Tie the next set of knots.
Move down about five inches, then find two adjacent pairs of cording. Take one cord from each pair, and tie another overhand knot. You do need to be pretty fussy about this part, because just about the only way to mess up this plant hanger is NOT tying adjacent pairs of cording. I like to pick my plant hanger up off the table and let it hang from its loop every single time I choose my adjacent pairs, just to make sure that I’m getting it right. But if you happen to get it wrong, it’s just knots! Just pick it out and try again! When you’ve got that set of knots tied, move down another 5 inches and tie another set. Depending on exactly how long you cut your cording, you should be able to get 4 sets of knots.
Step 5: Tie another gathering knot at the bottom of the plant hanger.
I could have fit another set of knots on the above plant hanger, but it was as long as I wanted it, so I stopped there. Just below the final set of knots, tie another gathering knot, then trim away the rest of the cording from the bottom of the plant hanger. With most of my plants now off my counters and out of my way, I just might make it to Spring!
