Recently, I was shopping in our local thrft store for jeans to refashion.
I found a few pairs, bought them, and this is the first of a few projects I had in mind.
It all started because I love a strong statement necklace.
Something that's big, eye-catching, and unique.
I knew I could get a few projects out of this pair of thrifted boot-cut jeans. I purchased a juniors size 13 so that I would have more fabric as opposed to buying a smaller size.
I also ordered this necklace from Amazon.
I pulled out my Fabri-tac glue, and started to create exactly what I had in mind.
I cut off the bottom hem of one of the legs.
I cut the whole leg off at about 24 inches, and then cut up the side seam.
I followed up by cutting up the other seam as well.
This gave me two pieces that were the same length.
I folded each length back on itself, matching the top and bottom edges.
This will show you the "flare" of the cut.
I used those top edges to even up the back.
I repeated that with the other part of the fabric.
This gave me two even lengths when folded over.
I made sure that the folded length was around 12 inches. This will be important for the final steps to my necklace.
I also used my ruler to cut strips from each leg, approximately .75-1 inches in width.
Now come the fun part.
I took one of the strips and folded it over the necklace.
I then took another strip, slightly overlapped it over the original strip, then clipped it with a sewing clip.
You could use bulldog clips, clothes pins, or sewing pins if you don't have the clips.
I continued this with each new strip, overlapping as I added them to the necklace.
When I had covered the amount of the necklace that I wanted, here was the result.
Mind you, this is only held together with the clips at this point.
I didn't want to make it permanent, UNTIL I was satisfied with the planned outcome.
I carefully removed the strips and started gluing them back using the Fabri-tac glue.
A small stripe of glue right below the necklace was all I needed.
As I glued each piece, I used the sewing clips to hold it in place as it dried.
There is a bit of time to "wiggle" the pieces as the glue doesn't set up immediately.
Once I was done gluing, I left it to dry overnight.
The next morning, I removed the clips and had this.
Now it was time to fray and frazzle those strips and finish up the necklace.
Using my sharp scissors, I cut those strips in half.
I cut both the front strips and the back strips, up to, but not beyond the glued part.
I was careful to move pieces out of the way as I cut.
I simply eye-balled the cuts; no detailed trimming occured.
Now I wanted to fray and make the strips messy and worn looking.
I started by just squeezing, pulling, rubbing, and finger-tangling the strips.
This caused them to shed which resulted inthe cut sides to look messy and old.
It was perfect.
It was a process similar to the Jeans I altered in this post.
Here it was ready for trimming.
Laying it out and allowing the strips to splay over my work station, I angle cut on both the right and left sides, up and away from the center strips.
Again, I just eye-balled this process, keeping it as close to the other side as possible, but realizing that it would be close to impossible to decern if one side was exactly equal to other.
Yahoo...I was done.
But it didn't quite meet the expectations that I had in my mind.
Something was missing.
At this point I put it aside, waiting for the inspiration to figure out what it needed and finish it.
Then it hit me!
Add some of the pearls you have in your bead stash.
Make it really unique.
So that's what I did.
I added large and medium sized "pearl" beads (Wal*Mart package of multi-colored "pearsl") right at the top of strips, below the fold over the necklace.
I had sewed this using just a needle and thread.
And THEN I knew it was done!
I haven't worn it yet, but I think it looks amazing with this casual striped top.
It's going to be a great accessory for this fall season, especially paired with the fall colors out in the stores right now.
I love breaking some fashion rules...don't you?
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