DIY Bib Necklace Update

In continuation from my post last week about making a beaded bib necklace, I can now officially say I have finished it! And it only took me two days! I finished it in time to wear it to a friend's birthday party on Saturday night, and it stayed fully attached to my neck until the wee hours, so I think it was a successful project.

I'm really happy with the results and have already nearly finished another bib necklace. I've noted some alterations that I've made in the new version (mainly making it larger, and adjusting the spot where the ribbon is secured to the necklace so that it sits in a slightly different place). 

I bounced over to the boyfriend with my finished necklace, and asked him what he thought. He appreciated my hard work but wasn't a fan of the necklace and said it was "too big"! "Too big indeed, I am making the next one much bigger!" I retorted. So there! :p

As I mentioned, I wore it to my friend's party that evening, and before I'd even gone through the front door, two people had stopped me asking where I'd bought it from. So it shows exactly how much I can trust a guy's opinion eh....Us girls need to stick together with our fashion choices!

So here's a little bit of a tutorial on how I made it.....

Supplies:

Scrap paper for template
Pen / marker for template
Gems, jewels, beads, pearls, sequins or whatever you want to decorate your bib with
Felt (colour of your choice)
Sewing needle
Pins
Coloured threads to match your embellishments
Ribbon
Hot glue gun
Material (which is what I used) or felt to back the necklace

Some of my supplies

How I did it!

1. Firstly I sketched the shape and size bib necklace I wanted to make and cut out a template. I tried the template on to see if it was right. I then chose the colour felt I was going to use and cut that out using my template.

Try placing gems/beads on your templates before you start so that you can get an idea of where to sew them

2. I chose what embellishments I wanted to use on my bib and laid them onto the template for a rough idea of how it would look. I used several larger gems, and then filled in the space around them with various other smaller gems, some sequins, a few pearls and other beads and sparkly bits. By laying them on the template, I did not have to remove them from the actual 'bib' whilst sewing other gems on.

Template with gem positioning

3. Start sewing your gems! This is the most time consuming part of the process. I enjoy sitting and sewing the gems on, but if you want to cheat, you could use a glue gun to secure larger gems. I used coloured threads that matched the gems as closely as possible, which was also time consuming, but I thought it would make for a better end result. I left a border around the edge of the gems.

When you have finished, it could look something like this!

4. I decided to back my felt with fabric. I had an old blazer I'd bought from a thrift store for the buttons, and had kept it handy for scraps. I cut the sleeve off the blazer, washed it by hand (to remove the old thrift store smell!) and let it dry. 

You can use any scrap material, or just another piece of felt

5. I pinned the beaded bib to the sleeve and cut out around it, leaving approx. 1cm edging. You could do this carefully, but I wanted a bit of a "rough" finish, so my edging was purposely not perfect.

6. Next is the fun bit - using a hot glue gun! I glued the felt to the fabric backing.

Once the glue has dried you can always sew it together for extra security.

7. Hold your bib up to your neck and work out where you should position the ribbon that will secure it. I marked these spots with pins.

I then measured approximately how much ribbon I would need to tie around my neck. I cut the ribbon longer rather than shorter as it is best to have too much rather than too little!

8. Glue the ribbon to the bib using the hot glue gun. I finished securing the ribbon by sewing it as well, just for extra strength. 

9. And there you go - you've finished!

Ready for party time!!

Please let me know if you make this version of a bib necklace, I'd love to hear about / see it! :)

I've linked this DIY tutorial up to these parties:

dittledattle

Look at Me!

Sunday Showcase

Along for the ride

Funky Junk Interiors

craft eNVy

I <3 naptime

Craftster

I recently joined CRAFTSTER and have really enjoyed browsing through the completed craft projects. One thing I keep seeing mentioned is 'Wist' which I am clueless about - so much to learn about all of this online crafting / sharing / swapping!

As I was browsing through the projects there were a couple that I JUST HAD to share with you!

Here they are - enjoy!

This beauty is made by Amy Gaspard. I love it sooo much. The colours are amazing and it totally makes me want to be back in Fiji sipping a cocktail!

I really like beading, and tried to "teach myself" last year, but ended up giving up and sewing the tiny beads onto felt instead. Definitely something I'd like to pursue again in the future.

This rhino ring was made by BananaAmbush and I would definitely feel FIERCE wearing it!*TYRA*

Such a whimsical, girlie necklace. It would look great at an afternoon tea party! Made by Miss Ireen. 

I had to check out her blog after seeing her work and I spotted this baby (called the Oceanus necklace) as soon as the page loaded - I NEED IT IN MY LIFE! 

Made by Miss Ireen and available at Etsy

Getting Old: Crafting rather than going out!

Rain Rain RAIN

Ahhh, the pitfalls of getting older! I spent yesterday afternoon becoming less and less keen to go out for drinks for St Patrick's day, and then when I finally finished work and got home, this was what I was faced with:

Would YOU want to venture out in THAT!?

And so I made a quick decision - I was not going out! I quickly put on some joggers, a jumper and knitted socks, just to demonstrate to myself that I was SERIOUS about my decision! And I had a jolly good evening cosied up in my house while people were getting rained on hopping from Irish bar to Irish bar - I'm sure my friends didn't even notice my absence the weather if the state of the text messages I received at 12:30am and 1:30am were anything to go by!


This is what I chose to do instead:

Crafting + Gossip Girl = Happy Sadie XOXO

I am a HUGE lover of Gossip Girl, and as it's shown at some silly hour on a  Sunday afternoon here in NZ, I instead watch it at my own leisure on DVD...ahhh how I LOVE CHUCK! It's Mother's Day in the UK in a few weeks and so I have begun thinking about what to send my Mama...living on the other side of the world means I have to be super organised and get in early! Or she'll have a sad face on Mothering Sunday ;)

SO I've decided to make her a 'bib necklace'! And last night I got my 'craft on' and my beads out, and started to make a test run....I realised I didn't have any black felt, so I am making the first one out of a lovely turquoise felt, which I think would be a bit bright for my Mum's style, so I will either keep it for myself or send it to one of my sisters. But I wanted to have a practice so that I know what I'm doing right, or what is totally wrong.

I started by making a rough sketch on card of the sort of shape and size I was aiming for, and laid out some lovely jewels and sequins to get an idea of placement. I've now started sewing them on, and will put full pics up with the finished project (successful or NOT!) when it's done.

I've had a look online this morning and have seen sooo many AMAZING alternatives to a jewelled bib necklace. Here are some of my favs!

AMAZING! By Wild as a Mink

I want to try this one next. By Bromeliad

This is a bit more advance, but LOVE IT! By The Glamourai

Very on trend with its use of buttons, by Little Miss Momma

WOW! By Love Maegan

So the pressure is on peeps! I have to make something as FABULOUS as these babies!!!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

So today is St Patrick's Day! Hurrah! I have worn a green dress especially for the occasion - I may not be Irish, but my Mum's side of the family are, so I like to think my nan would be proud, even if she is on the other side of the world right now!

Wellington has its fair share of Irish bars, which have all been gearing up for today's celebrations. Shame the weather has let us down and it's pouring with rain - bah! But it won't put off toooo many revellers tonight I bet...! I'm popping out for a few pints of the "black stuff" (well, I'll be sticking to vodka I expect!!) with some friends later and hoping for a bit of a knees up and some jolly good craic.

Well, I attended my FIRST EVER CRAFT meeting last night, as I mentioned yesterday. The club has fortnightly meetings, and once every six weeks do a 'swap' - where they've made an item within a set theme for another member. I've signed up for the next swap (a movie theme - not been given my swappee yet so watch this space for panic in the next week or so!) and so popped along last night to see the group exchange their swaps from the last round.

It was so interesting to see how each person had interpreted the theme in their own favourite crafty outputs. The theme had been 'housewife' and there was everything from gorgeously girly rubber gloves, hand-embroidered doilies (LOVED these) created by Teresa, to knitted coasters and an AMAZING cake stand upcycled from china plates and tiny goblets! So the pressure is on - I will definitely be looking for inspiration for my swap soon!!

I've read about craft/blog swaps around the world and want to get involved in one and so will be doing a wee bit of research about that too!

Have a happy St Pat's and remember - you don't have to be Irish to be Irish!

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New to blogging and craft meetings in ONE DAY!

So this is my first blog and first post and very first venture out into the big wide world - ooooh scary!!

Sadie *hearts* beaches!

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a wee while, and so had a peek at what some other girls were doing, and became totally inspired!

I contacted Little Miss Momma after reading her incredible blog and was amazed to receive a wonderful response just a few hours later! She encouraged me to "go for it" and so here goes......!!

As with most bloggers, I'm a tad scared of embarrassing myself online, but even more scared of sinking beneath the depth of the countless other blogs out there. I hope to learn as I go and make new friends in this blogosphere.

And so back to my first post:

Today I am very excited....I am not only starting my first blog, but I am also attending my FIRST CRAFT MEETING!! Woo hoo! 

I've been living in New Zealand for almost 2 years (more about that at another point!) and have only just got around to joining this craft group. So I am hoping to meet some lovely, inspiring, crafty ladies and have a good ol' time. Hopefully I'll have something crafty and interesting to report back tomorrow.

I'm going to keep my first post short and sweet, and so will leave it there.

Ciao ciao! x

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