Sunday 11 September 2011

Lady Elgin's necklace for Christmas - tutorial 3

On Friday night I was tossing and turning about what I could make next... I thought about devising a pattern for a simple cable scarf, you would all have plenty of time to get that done by Christmas - but as a friend asked me out for a drink, I decided that I would have to make something that was a tad quicker, after all a G&T was calling.   So then it came to me, something quick, easy and attractive, a girlie Xmas gift - the fabric covered necklace.  
Lady Elgin's Necklace
Option A - Small boy with marble collection with about a dozen or so spare marbles
Option B - Marbles from the Pound shop or a defunct large bead necklace
A piece of fabric 44" long by 4.5" wide - just check that your fabric will wrap around your largest bead
A 60cm of narrow velvet ribbon
and as we are working with fabric, your iron and ironing board
Needle and cotton
Matches
If taking option A, explain to small boy that your need for marbles is greater than his, I did try this with my Godson but failed spectacularly so I bought a jar of Marbles from the local Pound shop!
Lay out your marbles in the order that you will want your fabric wrapped beads to lie... I chose three large marbles and eight small marbles.
Press the raw edge of the long side of the fabric under, about 1/4" should do it.  Now fold it in half so that you can find your centre point.  
Place your centre bead there, we will be using this as our marker as everything will fan out from there.
Twist the fabric as tightly as you can and tie a knot into the fabric or you might want to use some jewellery spacer beads/cuffs.  Now keeping the fabric wrapped around your marble, twist tightly again and tie another knot or place in your spacer.
Working alternately on the right, then left of the centre marble continue until all your marbles are wrapped up
Fold over the end of your fabric neatly and over stitch this in place.
Now cut your velvet ribbon into two equal pieces, remembering that velvet ribbon has an affinity with 100m runners, flame the ends to seal the ribbon.
Stitch the ribbon in place at both ends.
Tie your necklace in place with a bow... await compliments and requests for the shop address!


Now don't you think it is time to high tail it over to Wendy's Handmade Monday BTW, Wendy's plaques got an honourable mention in the Telegraph as a kitchen must have, and do you know they are are quite right!

21 comments:

cj- catmumdo said...

What a fun idea! Easy to follow tutorial too :)

Rita said...

What a great Tutorial. I could even get the Grandkids to make these. Great idea.xxx

Annie and Lyn said...

Your posts are always entertaining and educational (brill tutorial - such a quick and unusual necklace)and they make me smile while I read. You have a witty way with words!

Carolee Crafts said...

Love the necklace, hope you gave the small boy a box of tissues, lol.

lovetartan said...

Loving this! Going to see what fabric I have that I could recycle to make one of these! :)

Caroline Lovis (Redneedle) said...

Where do you get your ideas from? Always unique, always fabulous, always makes me want to have a go.

Anne - Imagination Beads said...

Another fantastic idea, Ros.

Anonymous said...

that's such a great idea!! You have inspired some of my stocking fillers :-) x

Wendy said...

What a brilliant idea - and one even I (with no jewellery-making skills at all) could have a go at. Love the suggestion about a small boy and his marble collection. Poor child. Thanks for mentioning my mention ;-)

Anonymous said...

I know a small boy with marbles, so I think I must be half way there! What a good idea

Unknown said...

Thanks for the kind comments, I did toy (no pun intended... well not much) with the idea of using those little compacted rubber bouncy balls as the bigger beads. However, I had visions of the necklace coming undone and bouncing back up to give the owner a black eye!

Christmas Pie Crafts said...

What a lovely necklace and a great blog.

Jill

Susie said...

Wonderful idea! Thanks for the tutorial, I love it. :)

Anonymous said...

fab idea! off in search of some marbles now :o)

Mrs A. said...

Fab tutorial. Didn't know that trick of flaming the ends of the velvet ribbon. Hugs Mrs A.

bebebubu said...

Thank you for the tutorials. Very creative. More ideas on how to use fabric.

Pickle Lily said...

Another great tutorial - thank-you so much for sharing.
Jo x

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Little Harriet said...

Great (and funny!) tutorial. Will have to have a look to see what fabric I have going spare :)

LH
x

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The mum of all trades said...

So effective!
Thanks so much for taking part in Weekend Wonders last week. Hope to see you again this week!