Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Fashionista Necklace

After a trip to some great shops in Columbus' Short North District and finding a consignment shop for big girl sizes my sister and I were inspired to try and make our own "necklaces." 



-You'll want to start out by pulling out an old T-shirt of any kind that of course is the color of the necklace that you want to rock out! And grabbing a pair of fabric scissors.
-Lay the shirt out on a flat surface, pick up your scissors and prepare to start cutting!






-We suggest you trim off the hem around the bottom of the shirt and lay it off to the side





-You'll then want to start cutting 1 to 1 1/2 inch strips straight across the waist of the shirt. Leave them looped (attached on the sides). 











-Put the strips off to the side as you go. 










-Once cutting between 6 to 8 strips (depending on how thick you want your necklace) stretch each one out by pulling both ends until the strip curls looking more like a rope.









-Once each strip is stretched, lay them all out lengthwise next to each other and then gather each strip by matching up one ends seem in your hand. 









-Hold that end in one hand, while grabbing the other end in your other hand (should include the other side of the shirts seem) so it looks like a big hoop with all seems in either hand (not in the picture), then twist to make a figure 8 (like in the picture). 









-Keep the twist in the loop and combine the ends that were in both hands (all of the seems) into one hand. 














-Once all seems are together, you will have a smaller hoop.


ALMOST DONE!










-You will now want to take a scrap strip (if you cut a strip to wide or narrow previously) or just cut a strip from the top part of the shirt (about 12"-18" long by 1"-2" wide) to wrap around the seems of the shirt to finish and secure the necklace. 








-Once you have wrapped the strip around the whole "top" of the necklace to cover the seems, you will want to tie the excess in a knot, cut off any remaining pieces at the end of the knot, and tuck the knot under the wrapped piece. 






-You have then completed your very own T-shirt necklace. 

-There are other variations to this necklace:
        -Like I said above, you can use many or few strips to make it as thin or thick as you'd like
        -You can choose from any colored old T-shirt that you have, or mix and match, making it multi-colored
        -You can make it different lengths by twisting and combining the figure eight, or wrapping multiple ends, like in the picture below, and making it longer. 
       -Or dress up your dog, like we did Stevie! 







Let me know how it goes if you try it out!

And a special THANKS to my sister Maribeth who was my maker and model today!



mmm button

4 comments:

Aurora said...

I love this! I just took my teenage neice shopping at the mall and saw tons of scarves just like those that I kept telling her I could make. She thought I was crazy...but I'm not!! Thank for sharing this tutorial!

Leah said...

Oh my, how cute! Going through the closet now and I'm off to grab my rotary cutter and mat! Thanks for sharing.

Unknown said...

This is so clever :) I hope you come on over and link up to MMM tomorrow!

Anonymous said...

I have an old tee that I couldn't throw out because I love the color. Now I know what to do with it! Thanks.

pioneer588@yahoo.com