How to make a macramé plant hanger

Getting crafty is so much easier if you have everything set up before you begin. This means you'll need to have taken a trip to Bunnings and picked up some rope, a pair of scissors (large and sharp enough to cut through the rope) and a metal ring for hanging. Once you've got all this, you're good to go.

For this first step, we're using four pieces of rope, measured out in ‘body lengths.' For the uninitiated, a body length is the distance your arms reach when fully stretched out. Cut four pieces at TWO body lengths. Once cut, gather them together and thread them through the ring. They don't need to be completely even, but they do need to end roughly at the same place.

Once you've threaded those first lengths through the loop it's time to measure and cut more rope at different sizes. This time we'll need two pieces at THREE body lengths. Thread them through the loop and keep the longer pieces separate from the other lengths already on the loop.

Finally, we're going to cut two pieces at half a body length – these are for tying at the top and bottom. Once you've done this, pop them on one side.

Gather all your pieces of rope and spread them out nice and evenly in the ring. Then grab one of your half body length pieces and tie a loop knot. You do this by facing the short piece downwards, wrap it back up and around (if this sounds confusing, check out our video for clarity) and make sure to wrap everything tightly. Once you get to the bottom of the rope, loop it through and pull the top piece of rope up – and you've got a loop knot! Trim the ends so it looks nice and neat and you're on your way!

To do this you need to grab your longest pieces and put two either side of the rest of the rope. Now it's time to get half square knotting! To do this you need to grab your two pieces on the left side, cross them over in front of all the rope to the right. Then grab the two right pieces, pull them down, around the back and through our loop on the left-hand side. Pull it tight and that's one half square knot. Keeping up? Of course you are – you're watching our video!

Repeat all this knotting until all your ends come to the same length – this should be roughly around 14 half square knots. By using half square knots, we've created a great twisted pattern. Look at us – we're macramé-ing up a storm!

This next step requires four pieces of rope – two centre pieces, one to the left and one to the right. Leave a gap about two inches long at the top of the rope before starting your knot. Full square knots are made by doing the same process as we did for our half square not, but then reversing it, and doing it back the same way (again, if you're confused, watch the video). Once this is done, pull it tight and you've got your first knot. To continue this row you need to do two more full square knots using different pieces of rope.

Once you've got your first row of square knots, move down the same distance you did initially (so about two inches or so), for your next row. To do this, grab two ropes from one full square knot, and another two knots from the adjacent full square knot. You'll have four knots – and that's when you repeat the square knot process from the last step.