https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/make-a-chunky-beaded-necklace • Posted by Lisa C.
Don't throw that old necklace away. Cut the beads off, get your old tights out and whip up this funky necklace in no time!
Don't throw that old necklace away. Cut the beads off, get your old tights out and whip up this funky necklace in no time!
On your sewing machine, sew a straight line all the way up one of the legs of the tights, roughly 2cm (depending on the size of your beads) away from the edge.
Keeping roughly 0.5cm away from the edge of the stitching, cut out this strip. Snip off the ends so that they’re both open.
With the loop turner, turn the fabric inside out and tie a knot at one end, leaving a bit of excess material so that you can attach the ribbon later on.
Feed a bead in all the way to the knot. At this point tie another knot in the tights to secure it in place. I can be quite tricky to get the knot to sit in the right place but with a bit of manipulation it should be tempted. Also be careful not to pull the knot too tight so as not to snap the thread.
Keep feeding beads through and tying knots in between until you have your desired length. Make sure to tie a final knot at the end! And remember to leave enough of a tail to attach the ribbon to.
We decided that we wanted two rows of beads in our necklace – if you want to do the same just repeat the previous steps, this time using fewer beads to create a shorter necklace strand.
Hold the necklace strands around your neck to help you work out how long you want the ribbon. We’re using this lovely vibrant ribbon Lisa brought back from India! We went for a length of roughly 55cm. This allows us to put the necklace on over our heads without the need for a closure.
Taking the one end of the ribbon and two ends of the beaded strands, sew backwards and forwards in a straight line to secure it very tightly. You might find it easiest to use a zip foot on your machine for this, as it will allow you to get close to the knot.
Now let’s make the little tabs that we’re using to cover the join between the tights and the ribbon. On a fresh piece of ribbon, fold over around 1.5cm of the end and sew a few lines backwards and forwards over the join. Cut off the excess ribbon and turn the right way out. Thread onto the ribbon and push down to cover up the stitches and the excess of tights at the joining of the two necklaces. Do the same for the other side but make sure to thread the second tab onto the ribbon before sewing the ends together to make one complete necklace.
Using a needle and thread, hand stitch the tabs onto the ribbon so that they do not slide up and down the ribbon, and the necklace is complete!