buttoned up

When I was organizing all of my ribbon and trimming, some vintage tan seam tape caught my eye. It got me thinking about a box of mother of pearl buttons I had stashed away. I got them all out, as well as some iridescent beads, and decided there had to be a way to make some jewelry out of all these pretty bits and pieces.

That’s how I turned a little of this into the fun statement necklace you see below.

Now, I realize it would be pretty tricky to re-create this necklace without finding the same buttons and trimmings I used, but I’m going to take you through the creation process to give you some ideas for repurposing your own vintage notions.

First, I took one of my buttons (don’t they remind you of snowflakes?) And sewed/tied it to the middle of a long length of seam tape.

I could have left things here and had a cute and simple necklace, but I decided I wanted to go for something more like the bib necklaces that are so popular right now. To bulk things up, I sewed another button on each side of the first button.

To give the necklace a little more shape, I sewed the seam tape to more of the decorative loops on the buttons. I also sewed the seam tape to itself in the center of the necklace to form a loop. This probably makes no sense unless you look at the picture!

To finish the look, I sewed a small iridescent bead to the center of my seam tape loop. I also wrapped some of the lacy tape around two beads on each side of the necklace and sewed the tape shut around the beads. I didn’t have any jewelry clasps on hand, so I just left the tails of the necklace long so I can tie the ends in a bow behind my neck.

I think the finished product has a nice vintage feel!

OK, now go have a look around your sewing drawer for some bits and baubles to turn into your own dainty necklace!

<3
Hattie