DIY Statement Necklace

It has been a crafty few days for me as I've been busy using thrift store ties to make some DIY jewelry. Last weekend, I shared this little gem that I made. In keeping with the same theme, I am back to share a necklace that I also made out of a tie. I have been wanting to add a couple of shorter statement necklaces to my wardrobe. I noticed that most of my larger necklaces are longer and beaded and that doesn't always go well with a little boy who thinks everything is his play thing.
 
After some Pinterest perusing, I landed on these adorable necklaces and a great tutorial to go along with them. This blog, Artstar by Aletha, has a lot of amazing jewelry tutorials. I have a feeling I will be visiting often.

image via Artstar by Aletha

This one required the sewing machine. So I drug her out of the closet, blew off a little dust, and set her up. Can I just tell you how excited I was that I was able to thread the bobbin from start to finish without any issues? I didn't have to look in the owner's manual one time! It looks like we have turned a corner in our relationship. You might even consider us "friends" at this point. I chose to use this navy tie with teal stripes.

 

 

To kick off this little project, I had to completely disassemble the tie. I took out all of the stitching in the center of the tie and took out the insides. This is what it looked like when I was done with that step.

 

The next thing that I did was press it and then trim it so that the entire tie from one end to another was about 3.5 inches wide.

 

 

Next, I folded it over so that the right sides were together and I pinned it.

 

 

Then I began sewing. The tutorial explained to leave a 2-inch opening about every 3-inches or so. This was so that I would have room to add the beads. Oh, yeah, the beads! Somehow I didn't take pictures of them. This project requires several round beads. I had eight wooden beads on hand and they worked perfectly.

 

 

Once the sewing was complete, I turned the entire thing inside-out and pressed it flat on the seam. It looked like this.

 

 

All that was left to do now, was to slip beads into the openings and tie knots. It sounded easy enough but for some reason this took me a while. It took a lot of playing around to figure it out and get it to look symmetrical. I also couldn't get my knots to look as tight as my inspiration piece. I wonder if the tie I used was a little thicker. Since my hands were a little busy at this point, I didn't even think about taking pictures. Hopefully, you can see how I did it by looking at my finished piece.

 

And here she is (posing in a few different places)...

 

 

 

 

I am sooooo excited to wear it! I think it will be a very versatile piece. Something that can easily be dressed up or down. I also love that I made this for a mere 75 cents! What do you think? Is this something that you would wear? Thanks for stopping by and have a Happy Thursday!