Tutorial Tuesday: Pieced Fabric Necklace

At Christmas I visited with my family and my mom made a few of those cute little beaded fabric necklaces.  You know the ones where you make a small tube of fabric, put a wooden bead or marble inside, and knot between each one?  I thought it would be fun to make one with scraps of coordinating fabrics I had in my scrap bin.  After some math (lots of it!) I figured out how big to make each scrap so that it was just enough to wrap one wooden bead and hide the seam in the knot.  I LOVE how it turned out!

To make your own necklace you’ll need:

7- 3/4″ wooden balls

2- 3″ x 14″ fabric strips

7- 3″ x 3 1/2″ fabric rectangles (These will be the fabrics that your wooden beads will be in.  You can do them the same if you want, or switch up the fabrics so it looks similar to the one I made.)

(If you want to make a bracelet instead, cut 5 of the rectangles and use only 5 beads, and make the strips 7″ instead of 14″.)

First I arranged the fabric pieces in the order I wanted them to be when I sewed them.  I paid attention to the colors and the balance of the fabrics making sure not all the light or dark ones were together.  Remember that only about 1 square inch of your fabric will show so you’ll end up seeing more color than specific patterns.

Next, overlap the pieces 1/4″ and stitch using a 1/8″ seam.  By overlapping them instead of stitching right sides together you’re making the seam less thick, which will be better for knotting it later on.  Yes the seams will be raw edges..but you won’t even notice it later!  After you’ve pieced the center together, stitch the two strips to either side of your pieced necklace center, overlapping the pieces instead of stitching right sides together.

After you’ve got it pieced together, fold it in half, lengthwise, with the right sides together.  Stitch 1/4″ seam along the long edge.  You should have a really long fabric tube at this point.  Turn this tube right side out.

The final step is to insert the wooden beads and knot the necklace.  The easiest way to do this is to put in one wooden bead at a time and knot either side, making sure that your seams are in the knot.  Keep adding and knotting beads until you’ve got the center of your necklace finished.  Knot the ends of the necklace and you’re done!!  (If you want to make a bracelet, the fabric pieces you’ll need are listed under the material list above.  Follow the same set of instructions to complete your bracelet!)

Happy Crafting,

Erin