refashion jewelry

Over at my blog I love to sew, paint, organize, photograph, decorate, and upcycle. I especially love boy projects because I have two little guys, but I also enjoy making something for myself here and there.

I have a simple tutorial to help you turn broken jewelry into a new hip jewelry. I had a necklace that had three strands with some orange beads on it and it broke. It was cheap to begin with, so I wasn’t surprised, but I couldn’t part with it. So, I turned it into this.

Here’s what I did. I cut strips of fabric and washed them so they would fray a bit. (I used some creme-colored canvas I had lying around.) I had to trim the frayed strips up a bit afterwards, but the dryer helped give them that frayed edge I wanted. (Tip: I like to wash my fabric strips in a laundry bag so I don’t have to sort through the whole load of laundry to find them and so they don’t get tangled with the other laundry.)

I took my broken necklace and cut it into three separated strands.

I glued the three strips of fabric together at the top, set a chain on top of each strand, and then I braided them together as shown.

The beads pop out here and there giving the necklace a fun pop of color. When the necklace seemed to be the right length I cut the strips and hot glued them together at the end. I cut off any stray strings of fray that had come out.

Lastly I glued a long narrow strip to each end so the necklace could be tied on. I love the idea of mixing different metals and fabrics to create unique jewelry.

And there you have it. Thanks for having me Kathreen. All of you are welcome at my place anytime. -Cheri