Fabric Necklace

I haven't had much crafting inspiration lately, so I spent some time browsing through my collection of craft magazines and books to see what I could find.  I love the magazines published in the UK as they are big and glossy with great ideas and tutorials and essentially all of the ads are at the back.

One I like in particular, but cannot often find, is Homestyle Sewing, published by Immediate Media Company Ltd.  Lots of vintage sewing ideas that I love.  In the Spring 2013 issue there is a necklace made from fabric.  I had seen these at craft fairs a number of years ago and thought they looked "old lady-ish" (like I am one to talk!).  But the one in the magazine was made from Liberty of London fabrics and was very feminine and vintage looking.  Thought I'd give it a try.

Now most of my cotton fabrics date back to my quilting days and were not what I wanted.  (Actually I was too lazy to look through the 10 or so plastic bins I have.)  A trip to the fabric store was needed!  I didn't have anything in mind other than to take advantage of the 40% fat quarter sale that is going on at Joann's.

This is what I found.

I love batik fabric and thought this would look funky made up into a fabric necklace.  The black fabric looks like galaxies and, since I plan on bleach-dyeing a galaxy shirt (coming next), I picked up this one.  The other batik is to go with a tie-dyed shirt I bought at a craft fair this summer while visiting my family in NH.  The shirt was made by The Edge, located in Center Harbor, NH, and the blues and purples in the batik match the shirt. 

I also needed to pick up some wooden beads. I bought 20mm beads (and used a 40% coupon as these weren't on sale).  The holes of these beads are not large enough to push fabric through, as the design calls for one bead to be strung on the fabric.  I happened to have a similar sized wooden bead with a large hole in my stash and spray painted it a glossy black.  I also found some Sulky thread in a mark down bin for 50 cents.  It is a blue and black metallic and I thought it would look good somehow mixed in with the black bead and batik fabric. 

So, here is the supply list, rather than the supply discussion....

- a fat quarter of fabric or a 3 1/2 by 36 inch piece, preferably a cotton
- 7-10 wooden beads of two different sizes.
- any additional embellishments you may like, such as coordinating thread
- a matching button for the flower adornment, if desired.

I ironed by fabric first as it had been folded up rather tightly.  Next, since I used a fat quarter, I cut two pieces 3 1/2 inches by 18 inches and stitched 2 of the short ends together.

The thin piece is used for a fabric flower to finish off the necklace.  This I cut 3 inches by 18 inches and ironed in half, raw edges together, making a strip 1 1/2 by 18 inches.

I used 5 plain wooden beads wrapped in the fabric and randomly placed the 2 shiny black beads on the necklace.  Basically you wrap the bead in the fabric and tie a know up close to the bead securing it in the fabric.  You can see in the photo that I found a use for the shiny metallic thread.  I wrapped the black beads with it to give it a bit of sparkle, using Mod Podge to hold the thread in place.

Once I had the beads tied into the fabric, I cut the remaining loose ends into 3 strips for braiding.

Once finished with the braiding, I tied knots at both ends to hold the braids in place.  I then stitched a loop of black beading elastic into the knot to close the necklace.  Make sure the loop is large enough to stretch over the knot on the other end of the necklace!

Then I added a fabric flower.

This I made using the thin strip of fabric.  Using a length of thread about 24 inches long, I stitched a running stitch along the raw edges, stitching them together.  I then drew the thread up tightly, pulling it into a circle and stitching the short ends together, closing the circle.  I found a button in my stash that had the galaxy look that the fabric had and used that to hide the raw edges on the inside.  Next I stitched it to the necklace.

I love the way it turned out, but when I make another one out of the other batik I bought, I will make it longer.  I like my necklaces to hang a bit lower and this one is close to my neck.

Hope you enjoyed this!

Happy Crafting!

Kathy