DIY: Easy Flower Bib Necklace

Hey all you glue-gun gurus ;)

Recently I've been searching on the internet for a statement necklace-- something chunky and borderline theatrical-- but they are pretty expensive, especially since I probably won't incorporate it everyday. I saw this one flowery necklace, and I thought, "I could probably make that." So here goes...

Materials:

p.s. I ended up not using the mint-colored fabric

-about a yard of fabric
-scissors
-needle
-thread to match the color of the fabric (why didn't I take my own advce?!)
-buttons/ beads
-paper
-pen/marker
-pins (to hold the paper template on the fabric)
-glue gun (for those parts where you get lazy)

Difficulty: Easy
Time: 30 minutes- 1 hour (depending on how fast you sew, but it's really simple stitching)

1) Start by cutting out a rectangle about 2 1/2 inches by 1 foot.

2) Fold the strip of fabric in half and sew a very loose stitch along the raw edge. The stitches can be big, and they don't have to be uniform.

3) When done stitching along the edge, do not knot or cut the thread, and pull it as much as you can. You will see the fabric scrunch up, and it will look more like a flower. Sew the two edges of the strip together, and make a knot to cut the thread.

4) To give the flower a more finished appearance, sew a button or a bead in the middle. There's one easy way to make a fabric flower!

Here's a really simple video where I learned how to make this flower.

5) You can continue with one style of flower, but I thought I would switch it up for the smaller ones. So I also sewed a "yo-yo" style. For this, you should trace and cut a circle into the fabric. Note: I used a large Gatorade bottle to trace the circle, and the yo-yo turned out to be a little bigger than the size of a quarter.

6) Fold over a quarter of an inch of the fabric and start sewing close to the folded edge. Again, the stitches can be loose and not uniform, though I do think for the yo-yo flower, smaller stitches should be used.

Here's what it should look like when the folded edge is all sewn.

7) Now without knotting or cutting the thread again, pull the thread taught.

Here's the video where I learned to make this little bunchy, yo-yo flower. I hot glue-gunned a gold button in the middle to hide my mismatched thread.

8) When you're done making the desired number of flowers, lay them out and figure out a pattern for the bib part that you will glue the flowers onto. Trace the pattern on paper, cut it out, and pin it to the fabric.

I made mine into a moon shape. But you can make it more or less angled to your liking.

9) After you cut out the bib part, cut out two "ribbons" of fabric, making sure the width of each strip will match up to the ends of the bib. You can cut it as long or short as you want, but mine are approximately 1 1/2 feet.

10) Sew the ribbons to each side of the bib. I used "X" stitches, so that they would be secure.

11) Arrange the flowers on the bib and glue them down.

Voila!