SILKIN' IT

Gearing up for the holiday season (under the false pretense that I'll have fabulous holiday parties to attend) I wanted to make something that makes me feel festive and ready to tackle any egg nog that comes my way.

I saw a necklace similar to the one I made, but the necklace I saw was made out of tulle. After completing the project, I realized why the necklace was made out of tulle...it's MUCH easier to work with than silk. But...being me I wanted to make something shiny. My love for shiny things rivals that of babies and ravens. It's pretty serious.

Here's what you'll need:

- 1 yard of silk (or tulle if you're smart)

- needle

- thread

- clasp of your choice 

TOTAL COST: $5.00

Begin by cutting your yard of fabric into strips lengthwise. I did one strip about 3 inches wide, two strips about 2 inches wide and two strips about 1 inch wide. No need to worry about making the cuts perfectly even, as you'll be folding up the fabric and the edges won't matter.

With each strip, you'll fold it in half the long way and accordion fold the entire strip. The 3 inch wide strip I made my folds about 2 inches long, the 2 inch wide strip about 1.5 inches long, and the 1 inch wide strip about 1 inch long. It's up to you depending how much volume you want.

To secure each folded strip, I used bobby pins. Depending upon the fabric you use you can also use safety pins, but given all the layers of silk I was working with it was a bit difficult to get the safety pin through so I had to turn to hair accessories. Whatever works.

They look sort of like pretty silky flowers. Do I feel another project coming on?

Now take your thread and needle and thread all five adorable little bundles together. Make sure you have the two thinnest bundles on the end and the thickest in the middle. Widths going from one end of the other should be 1 inch, 2 inches, 3 inches, 2 inches, 1 inch. Everyone with me? Great.

Once the thread is through (which may be a battle requiring a thimble or other hardware to prevent injury) figure out how long you want the necklace to hang around your neck and tie on your clasps. I used the little ring thing because it's easy to attach and easy to get on and off.

Now, take off the bobby pins and evenly spread out the fabric along the length of the necklace. Beauuuutiful. Since I was working with silk and didn't have any fray check on hand, my ends got a little fuzzy after all the folding. I used a lighter to burn the frayed parts off and prevent future fraying. However, you don't want to let the fabric start on fire and you definitely don't want to let your house start on fire. Just be careful. Or use fray check beforehand.

Here's the finished product. And...

Ta-dah! Throw this sucker on with a little black party dress and get me to some mistletoe! I realize it's not even Thanksgiving yet but a girl can dream.

Song to get you going: Jamie Cullum - I Get a Kick Out of You 

(...because this is a song I would like to hear at a lovely holiday party...preferably being played by a beautiful man on a baby grand piano. Again...allowed to dream.)