Lace Collar project

Jewelry can be made in all kinds of forms...including fabric & lace.

This collar can dress-up any number of tops or dresses. It would make a cute collar for a little girl's Easter dress.

Using my serger machine, I sewed 4 layers of this lace on top of one another giving it a layered look.  Then I used my reg. sewing machine to stitch ribbon on the collar edge to cover serger thread.  I made a loop in the ribbon and attached at one end of the collar to make a button loop.  I found a beautiful vintage button and hand sewed it to the other side as well as hand-stitched on  a  little ribbon bow  for adornment....

Serger lace necklace

I am loving my new serger!! This was a quick "sewn" necklace" project. I had a large roll of this lace..not vintage...I over lapped the lace and used my serger to sew down the middle so as to make two side of "frills".  I made a long loop (for around my neck and to the bottom of the piece) . I pulled the bottom ends together  and tied a knot (hidden in copper bead. I wrapped a piece of beading wide around the knot...threaded it down through the bead and beaded on the handing heart pendant and pearls..finished off the pendant with an eye loop on the bottom to hold it all.  No closures, nothing fancy.
Just plain frilly and fun to make.

Copper Butterfly for Berkeley

I made an extra-large  butterfly from copper wire for my Goddaughter Berkeley.. She loved it!!!

"Look Ma, no metal chain!"

I made this necklace with NO CHAIN..only vintage lace, some ribbon, and some seashells.

This  necklace was pretty easy.  I had a long scrap of this vintage lace and some seashells.. I used my serger machine to sew the edges of the lace together (giving strength to the lace) I rolled the  lace lengthwise to hide the stitches inside the "fabric chain". I experimented to see which seashells could bead the lace without tearing, and decided on these cowrie shells  The shells held the lace together, & gave the necklace weight so it would hand right. Using little satin ribbon I tied a  knot under each shell to hold them in place.  I made a hook/clasp  for the closure to complete.

I didn't really plan this necklace out. It just sort of  fell into place.  Often I will come across a piece of  lace or beads or buttons...that kind of  "talk to me".  I pull a project bowl out and gather somethings that might work together and just start making a necklace or bracelet. I'm  really a tactile learner. I do my best sometimes just creating on the "fly"...it's great problem solving for me.

HOWEVER.. This approach can cause  problems, too!! Sometimes a project, in spite of my best intentions, turns out WAY MORE difficult that I  can handle..ending in a hornet's nest of complications and tossed into my "do-over-pick-apart-and-start-over"  bucket.

Antique lace collar

I acquired this lovely vintage lace collar from a sack of old lace given to me by a friend.  It was dingy, stained, and torn.  I soaked the lace in OxyClean which brightened it right up.
I stitched up most of the tears (although one is still showing here...I missed it. I had a vintage necklace of tightly strung small shell fragments, and I hand stitched the necklace to the edge of this lace making the shell necklace the new collar for this lace. It worked okay but when I wore it, the necklace rolled curling the lace necklace funny. So I took it apart and did something different.  Using my serger, I attached this pretty  pink chiffon ribbon onto lace neckline instead.   Then I added two absolutely beautiful pink rose vintage buttons for decoration! This turned out really nice.

The bottom of the lace looks crooked here, but it's not...just the way it was hanging on the model and the camera angle.

Challenging construction

OKAY..this was another project that started out easy and turned nightmarish quickly. I used a VERY FRAGILE vintage lace that I wrapped with satin ribbon for protection. I threaded the ribbon, lace, wire through every large hole bead. I sewed a vintage button on top to hold the ribbon around the lace....the nightmare got going when I had to finish this pendant piece.  All I can say is that it took me 4 tries to figure out how to pull it together into the pendant.  I about tossed it twice into the garbage...EEEH GADS!!!!

Copper wire vintage MOP buttons

This necklace took awhile to make.  I made a connecting link on each side of the button (two links per buttons)....connected the links together making a chain...and added  a wired focal piece to finish it off.  I even made a copper wire hook closure to finish the necklace.  The sounds simple but it was a lot of wire bending.  My hands were sore when I finished this creation.

I enjoy wearing it too....silky smooth vintage MOP buttons and the warm copper make a nice looking and nice feeling necklace.