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.

Copper butterfly jewlery

I tried several beads before I decided these small glass pearl beads and copper spacer beads would work with my copper butterflies to make a necklace.
I threaded the pearls and spacer beads, then threaded the 7-strand beading wire through the body of the butterflies to connect them into the necklace.

I made a couple little mini butterflies for earrings.  Everytime I wear these, people think they are really original and cute.

Copper Butterflies

I really enjoy working and creating jewelry using copper wire.  But it's gotten so expensive.
My husband, a manufacturing engineer by degree, found a solution to my plight  of finding low-cost workable copper wire: At a shop that rewinds electrical motors!  The copper wire was on  huge roll..and about half the going retail prices.  He's my hero!!!!

I saw some insects kind of like these in a magazine...and gave it a try to make my own.
This is my version of the copper insects: copper wire butterflies. (The wings "flap" too)

1) Make a coil of wire for the body
2) Take a long piece of copper wire and make a flat spiral (top wing)...run the remaining wire through the body coil...and make another flat spiral  (bottom wing) with rest of wire. Repeat to make a set of wings for the other side.
3) Bend a piece of wire in half...push it down through the body coil.  Bend the remaining wire into flat spirals to make antennae. This piece acts as a pin to hold it all together. You may need to bend this part around a bit to  keep it from pulling out.

* Stunning necklace or art piece?

 Is this creation of mine an art piece or a piece of jewelry? I crossed the line somewhere in making this necklace. It's so daring and so gorgeous and I put so much effort into making it, that I really don't want to sell it.  I have at least $150.00 in matched VINTAGE, carved, large, MOP buttons, agate stones,  freshwater pearls, and findings...not to mentions about 40 hours in labor...seriously.

The original version of this was "crooked".  I had used mismatched buttons and so some of button pendants hung at different lengths...It killed me to start over, but I did.

To make each button pendant/chain, I folded a long piece of beading wire in half, strung on the botton pearl and agate stone to the middle of the wire. Then I crossed the wires though the buttons twice and repeated: Twist the wire, string another pearl/stone/button etc.  I had to be careful. If I twisted the wire too  much or too hard...it would break.  And it did.  I had to do two of the button pendants over because the wire broke.

When the pendants were done, I then had to change neck chains twice because they weren't strong enough to support the pendants.

This necklace is almost too daring. I  imagine a tall beautiful leggy woman with a long neck wearing this..a Hollywood starlet or someone wanting to
make sure everyone noticed her.  Or not.
It's my weird imagination that created this necklace....
.I can imagine the person who might wear it as well!!    LOL  LOL LOL

Pony beads to the rescue

I found some large-hole,  clear acrylic, pony beads that I could bead this vintage lace with!!  Then I added a  focal piece by making a shiny checker-board faceted, vintage black onyx button. Using the pony beads allowed me to make a different kind of necklace with a fragile piece of vintage lace

Beaded vintage lace

I acquired several yards of this beautiful early 1900's lace. It was to delicate to pull through a bead. I first strengthened the lace with a layer of fabric stiffener product. When dry and clear, I stitched on silver tube beads and pearls by hand.  Then I attached acrylic crystals (lighter in weight than regular crystals) and pearls with tiny rings to the outer embroidered edge of the lace. I added a silver closure.
Voila! a pretty, delicate, re-purposed vintage lace necklace.