Faux Leather Crafts: Geometric Necklace Tutorial

The third tutorial in my mini "crafting with vegan leather is awesome" series is... a geometric necklace!

Use a chain from an old necklace, or a length of ribbon, to make a bold geometric necklace. Use the templates provided or get creative and draw your own design! You could also make this necklace from felt instead of faux leather.

This tutorial originally appeared on the Village Haberdashery's blog and was created using synthetic leather and other craft supplies from their shop.

You will need:

- The necklace templates (follow the link to view and download the PDF template sheet)
- Some synthetic leather
- Matching felt and sewing thread
- A necklace chain or length of ribbon
- A sewing needle
- Sewing scissors
- An air-erasable fabric marker pen or an ordinary felt tip pen

To make the necklace:

Use the templates provided to cut out pieces A to F from the synthetic leather. Place the paper templates on the back of the leather, trace around them using an air-erasable fabric marker or a felt tip pen then cut out the shape using sewing scissors.

Sew the pieces together using whip stitch and matching sewing thread (I used blue thread throughout). Start with the smallest pieces, sewing piece A to piece B then piece B to piece C and so on, so you’re only stitching through two layers of the leather at a time.

Once you’ve sewn all the pieces together, use the leather shape as a template to cut out a matching piece of felt for the back of the necklace.

Place the felt and leather together then use sewing thread (in the same colour as before) to sew along the top edge, joining the layers together. Place the middle of your necklace chain (or ribbon) between the two layers, so it will be held in place when you sew around the rest of the necklace shape. Make sure there are even lengths of chain (or ribbon) sticking out from each side of the necklace.

Blanket stitch around the rest of the necklace – making sure you don’t let the chain or ribbon slip out as you sew.

P.S. here are the other tutorials in this series: a faux leather star headband tutorial, a faux leather lightning bolt necklace tutorial, and a tutorial for making a mini notebook with a reusable faux leather cover.


This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to make as many necklaces as you want for yourself or as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to this page on my blog, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial / share my templates on your site. Thanks!

Enjoyed this free tutorial? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!


P.S. Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

Geometric Faux Leather Necklace Tutorial

UPDATE: my vegan faux leather craft tutorials are now available here on my blog! Make a lightning bolt brooch, a geometric necklace, a star headband, or a mini covered notebook.

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The final faux leather tutorial I designed for The Village Haberdashery is now up on their blog: how to make a geometric necklace!

I loved working with the sheets of faux leather, especially the metallic gold - doesn't it look fab with the turquoise blue?

Click here for the step-by-step necklace tutorial.

And here are some handy links to the faux leather tutorials I wrote earlier: a star headband, a mini notebook,and a lightning bolt brooch. The headband, necklace and lightning bolt would also be fab made with felt!

Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

Giveaway: Necklace and Earrings from Alice Still

Today's givaway is from Alice Still.

Alice says... "I have been making jewellery for over 15 years, having started in my mid teens making fairly run of the mill strung pieces. In time, as I continued into third level education studying Engineering and Mathematics, I discovered the more time consuming but ultimately more satifying off loom or needle weaving techniques. My current work brings together my love of colour and experimentation..."


Alice's shop is currently in hiatus, while she works on new collections, but you can bookmark her new website ready for when it goes live in early Spring 2012.


Alice is giving away a necklace and matching pair of earrings:


The necklace and earrings are from Alice's Pop! Collection features beaded octahedra focals made from high quality Japanese seed and fringe beads and are approximately 1cm across. An octahedron is a geometric solid with 8 faces; something chic for Math fans!

The earrings are Sterling silver hoops just under an inch in diameter, threaded through the beaded beads. Painstakingly hand beaded, each motif is about 1cm cubed.

For your chance to win, just leave a comment on this blog post. Alice is happy to ship internationally, so anyone can enter but please remember that you will be responsible for any customs charges if you live outside the UK. Leave your comment before 10pm on Saturday 19th November (UK time) and I'll pick the winner at random on Sunday 20th November.

Please leave a name or pseudonym and include a blog link, Twitter or Etsy username, or email address so I can contact you (if I'm unable to contact the winner within two weeks, I will have to pick someone else so please make sure you leave a way for me to get in touch). I'll then pass your details on to Alice so she can send your prize.

UPDATE: this giveaway is now closed.

How To: Make a Button Bib Necklace from Felt

You know when you get that sudden urge to make something? Well, I got that urge this weekend and made LOTs of things... all destined to be fun tutorials, coming to this here blog very soon. Woop!

First up: a key accessory in fashion this autumn, the statement bib (or collar) necklace. I am becoming increasingly obsessed with these - they seem like such a bold fun way to jazz up the most simple outfit. A plain dress (or jeans & a tshirt) plus a bib necklace equals POW!

To make your own necklace you will need:
A paper template (see the bottom of this post), or you could draw your own shape
Thick felt (because of the weight of the buttons). Quality wool felt, or that thick (and wonderfully cheap!) synthetic stuff you get in sheets in stores like Hobbycraft. I used black to make the other colours really pop.
Matching thread, sewing needle, scissors, and pins.
Matching wide ribbon to make the ties
Buttons - I used a mix of bright colours for mine, but you could use any colour palette you fancy, perhaps an assortment of shapes in one colour? All black buttons on a grey background would look particularly chic. For some extra bling, you could add sequins, beads, and any other shiny doodads you can lay your hands on.

1. Pin the paper template to your felt, and cut around it. Do this twice, so you have a pair of matching felt shapes. One of these will be the decorated front of your necklace and the other the back.

2. Lay out your buttons on one of the felt pieces and play around with them until you get an arrangement you're happy with. This piece will become the back of your necklace.

3. With the back piece (covered in buttons) on the table in front of you serving as a guide to where to place them, gradually sew the buttons one by one onto the other (front) piece of felt. Make sure you stitch the buttons on securely, using a double thickness of thread and several stitches per button.

 

4. Cut two lengths of ribbon, long enough so you can easily tie a bow to fasten your necklace (I cut mine to each be 14 inches long so I can wear the necklace low or high). Cut the ends at an angle to help prevent fraying.

5. Place one piece of ribbon at the top left of the back felt piece, so half an inch or an inch of the ribbon overlaps the felt. If your ribbon has a "right" and a "wrong" side, make sure that the "right" side is face up on the felt so it will be visible when you wear the necklace. Sew the ribbon in place securely. Repeat this for the other piece of ribbon on the other side of the necklace.

6. Now place the front and back pieces of your necklace together, so that the buttons are facing outwards and the stitched ends of your ribbon are sandwiched between the felt pieces. Pin the felt pieces together carefully. Finally, use a whip stitch to sew all around the edges and finish your stitches at the back of the necklace where they won't be visible.

7. Wear your necklace immediately and feel fabulous!

Double click the template below to to view it full size and print out.
If you print at 100% your necklace will be the same as mine, just change the % to make it smaller or larger.
This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it for as many necklaces as you like for yourself or as gifts for friends but please don't make any for sale. Please feel free to borrow photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial on your site. Thanks!

Enjoyed this free tutorial? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!


Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns:

Photo Shoots and Fathers Day

I totally forgot to send my dad a card for Fathers' Day. What a terrible daughter I am!
However, three of my pins got featured over in the Dawanda Fathers' Day "My Father the Hero" gift guide so it's not all bad news, hehe...
My camera is still dead (no camera zombie as yet but it may happen) so still no crafty photos.

I can however show off some of the shots from Friday's photo shoot (my camera's final blaze of glory) ... Lots of masks:
Some hairbands:
And my newest ventures, floral bracelets and necklaces:Hurrah! Look out for these pics and more popping up in my Etsy listings over the next few weeks. (PS many many thanks to my lovely models: nothing beats seeing these things actually being worn)

365 / 259 - Covered in Felt!

Last night I spent a lot of time doing dull things like catching up on Etsy feedback, but I did manage to watch the end of America's Next Top Model and finish this:
I like to think that watching 10 whole seasons of ANTM has instructed me well in the art of modelling... but perhaps not!
Hopefully (fingers crossed) I may have some volunteer models soon so the rest of the designs I'm planning can get listed without me pulling silly faces at the camera and relying on a bit of blur to hide many a blemish!My boyfriend thinks I have gone off my rocker (110% loopy bananas) with this one, but I think it's pretty awesome. It's designed like a garland, so you can loop it round yourself or hang it in your house (I wanted to make one of these for a felty Christmas but never got round to it).
Smaller and simpler versions of this should be coming soon but you've got to start with the showstopper, right? (in ANTM vocab: this one's couture, ready-to-wear is coming soon!).