Did you purchase the DIY kit for making a dog leash with paracord flowers? Here you can find the instructions for making this leash. Of course you can also make this leash without this kit, you can find the necessary materials on the product page.

This tutorial shows how to add the flowers to a leash with the Kara Yatsu braid, but it works the same for all leashes with 8 strands. So you can also use the instructions for the 4 Strand Round Double Braid or the Herringbone braid for the leash and after about 15 cm of braiding interrupt the braid to add the flowers.

Starting with a diamond knot

In the example, first of all a diamond knot is made. This is not necessary, you can choose to immediately start with the braid itself.

It is useful to have an aid when making the diamond knot. You can make one yourself by cutting 4 pieces out of an empty toilet roll.

Braiding Kara Yatsu

After making the diamond knot, you start with the Kara Yatsu braid. For this you need a kumihimo disc.

Note: you braid about 15 cm of this braid, then you knot the flowers. Once you have made the flowers, you continue with the braid.

You can watch the video tutorial for Kara Yatsu here. Below the video you will find the instructions in pictures, which can also be downloaded as pdf.

Kara Yatsu step by step

1. Move no. 1 to no. 11 and no. 2 to no. 24 
2. Move no. 18 to no. 8 and no. 17 to no. 27 
3. Move no. 9 to no. 17 and no. 26 to no. 18
4. Move no. 25 to no. 1 and no. 10 to no. 2
5. Move no. 27 to no. 26 and no. 8 to no. 9
6. Repeat steps 1 through 5.

Download the pdf instructions for the Kara Yatsu braid.

Knotting paracord flowers

After you have braided about 15 cm, you interrupt this braid to knot the Aztec Sun Bar flowers.

As a transition between the braid and the flowers you first tie two snake knots. This ensures that the strands are brought together nicely and it makes it easier to knot the flowers later on, but it is not a requirement.

Tip: first take a picture of the kumihimo disc before you remove the ropes. This makes it easier to resume the braid with the same pattern later on.

After you have knotted the three flowers, you tie two more snake knots. Then you get everything ready to continue with the Kara Yatsu braid. This is when the picture you took beforehand comes in handy, so that you know exactly where each rope should end up on the disc.

Finishing the leash

Now you continue with the Kara Yatsu braid, doing this in exactly the same way as before.

After you have finished the leash itself, you are going to make the handle. This is done by folding the braid in two and then attaching the end to the leash. You determine the size of the handle yourself.

Once this is done, you can choose to hide the attachment of the handle. Here we have done that by tying diamond knots around it.

Finally you cut off the ends. You can then choose to burn them and push them under the diamond knot, fray these ends to create fringes or attach beads to the ends and finish with a knot.

Would you like to make a matching paracord keychain? Then use the photo tutorial to make an Aztec Sun Bar keychain!