Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts

Friday, September 6, 2013

Fabric Flower Necklace


After drooling over the beautiful fabric flower necklaces on Etsy, I combed Pinterest to figure out how to make them.  After reading several tutorials, I decided to give it a try.  Thanks to Hobby Lobby, I found the Glue Dots adhesives.  Before the 40% off coupon, they were $4.99 for twenty-four two-inch rounds.  I really wanted a pack of mixed sizes; however that was not an option.  I didn't want to spend much, so I bought the biggest ones and just trimmed them down for the smaller flowers.  I used the instructions for the flowers from http://thegreenfrogstudio.typepad.com/the_green_frog_studio/inspiration-tuesday/ .  She used Glubers, I think I found the same type thing, just a different name.  Her instructions are simple and the pictures are helpful.  After I made the flowers in small, medium, and large, I laid them out in different patterns to see what looked good.  After finding an arrangement I like, I peeled off the back of each flower and stuck them on a piece of felt in the arrangement I liked.  Then I trimmed off the excess felt.  In place of a chain, I used a yarn that I had used for several of the flowers.  I tied a knot in each end of the yarn and hand-stitched it to the felt.  Necklace finished.  The total time spent was about three hours.  The flowers get easier to make as you get accustomed to working with the sticky dots.  Since I used yarn and fabric I already had, this was a low-cost project.  The glue dots were $2.99 after the coupon and the piece of felt was $0.25.  I only used nine of the glue dots, so I can get about two more necklaces from the pack.  I can get a least one, maybe two more necklace backings from the piece of felt. The ones I like on Etsy ranged from $20.00 to $50.00.  Mine cost less than $2.00 - and I like it even better! 

Thursday, September 5, 2013

DIY Necklace



I did it!  After yearning for one of the beautiful necklaces made of vintage brooches on Etsy, I made one myself.  I made it from items on hand.  I have a collection of old pins that I wore years ago.  These were collected at flea markets and yard sales.  One might have actually been purchased at a store.  I used the tutorial and template from Bromelaid.  In place of the gold elastic thread, I used 24 gauge gold wire.  After printing the template from Bromelaid's link, I played around with the arrangement of an assortment of pins.  When I got it the way I wanted, I flipped them over and started wiring them together.  This part took about an hour.  I did not like the way they hung, so I redid some of them several times to get it to lay the way I wanted. I ended up using seven brooches.  I did not snip off the clasps. After I got them just right, I put a dot of white Elmer's glue on the clasp of each pin.  If I decide to take the necklace apart, the clasps of the brooches are not ruined.  I had planned to use an older brass necklace to complete it; however, I could not bring myself to rip it apart.  I dug through some old bracelets and found two that seemed to work with the assortment of brooches used.  I wired them on and it was finished.  Start to finish, it took a total of about two hours. ♥!