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!