Sometimes I feel like I ride on the coattails of creative people.
Back in January as I was surfing my favorite blogs, I came across this post on Ultra Vroom about cardigans and fabric necklaces. I instantly fell in love and had to have a fabric necklace for my very own. I week or so later I remembered the large stash of white jersey hanging around the basement and hap-hazardly made my own version of Annie‘s fabric necklace.
If I remember correctly, I wore that necklace for 4 days in a row. I didn’t really take it off until Penelope bumped her mouth on the table and bled all over me (Penelope is ok, BTW). It was with much sorrow that I parted with the necklace long enough to launder it.
I love my necklace so much, I’ve been wanting to share it with you for sometime, but haven’t worked on the tutorial until just now. Here it is! I hope you like it.
Materials:
- 1 XXL or XXXL men’s t-shirt
- Scissors and/or rotary cutter
- Sewing machine and or needle & thread
Cut off the bottom hem of the shirt. Cut 9 2-inch strips out of the shirt.
Cut open one end of each strip. Stretch the jersey through your hands to allow the fabric to curl inside itself. Group strips into threes.
Sew coiled ends together. Secure the end to a stationary object (like a couch) with a safety pin. Start braiding. I find that a tight braid looks nice, but avoid pulling and stretching the fabric.
Once finished braiding, sew ends together to make three separate rings of fabric.
Cut a 5 x 7 inch square of fabric from the remainder of the shirt, fold it over the three braids and sew. Sew the tube as close to the braids as possible for a snug fit. Trim excess fabric. Turn right side out.
Voila! Your necklace is complete. Twist, and double over and you’re ready to rock and roll!
If you twist the loop twice before doubling over, the necklace looks like this (above).
Twist the necklace once before doubling over and pull some loops longer to have a cowl neckline (above).
So there you have it, in less than 15 minutes you can have a really rad fabric necklace ’round your neck. Hope you give it a try! Happy Weekend, All!
P.S. You might want to check out Annie’s etsy shoppe: Annily Green.
i love that you used t-shirts, and those colors are so great! i’m also so glad to see that someone else loved my idea as much as i did. i want to wear these things every day!
good morning Melissa! I read your blog and I added you on my list of favourite blogs. And… this morning… surprise!! You and me have posted the same subject! I like refashion and I’ll try to make your necklace. If you like to see my basket, you’re welcome
Sara
I just love these sorts of things! Can’t wait to make one, or six of my own! I recently did a blog post of a scarf/necklace I made – you might enjoy it! http://corirowley.blogspot.com/2010/03/scarf-necklace.html
Best wishes.
Cute as hell! Love this!
I just made a dark red one, turned out great! Thanks for the super easy to follow instructions. I can’t wait to wear mine!
Those are so, so pretty! I love this! Thanks so much for sharing, I’ll be linking.
Lucky for me, my sister was going through her closet this weekend and happened to have a lot of nice jersey knit stuff – if only we were bigger and had enough fabric on our shirts to make long enough chains. HOWEVER! She had an old jersey knit pillow case (in brown) so i cut that up and made this. I’ll upload a pic to the flikr group so you can see it.
Excellent tutorial! Thanks so much for sharing , I am sure our readers will love this, so I am linking to it from CraftGossip later this week. Thanks again – Kate
I’m loving this! Found you via whip-up.
So COOL!! will be nice as bracelet as well.
Thank you!!! I found this at just the right time, exactly what I was looking for, those loopy necklaces were just a little too messy looking. I’ve made two of these so far, here’s a link- http://www.flickr.com/photos/brantlea/4667956465/
Dude! What an awesome idea! This is one DIY I might actually complete.
Amazing!! Thanks for sharing! And thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving the sweet comment.
I am so going to make me a couple of these necklaces!!
XOXO
Amber
Great!! I’ve already made two of these in the last 12 hours! I did a multi strand per your instructions and then made a simpler one with just one braid. Both turned out great and I can’t wait to make more.
uh….all (ALL) my t-shirts are black…uh. on the other hand, the making of the strips is very interesting. i do sailor knot work (google clifford ashley) and this might be a great way to scale up.