Building, Boxes & Dressing for Downton....

So this is the view from my temporary crafting space..  

As you can see it's not hugely inspiring (even worse on a wet day!) but hopefully means I will soon have a lovely new crafting space to play work in.  Anyone who's had building work done will know, it's a necessary mess and you have to play lots of move-boxes-around-the-house which basically means I can't find all the bits & pieces I need to be able to make the projects in my head (still.... it won't be forever...)

It's also very noisy and hard to think straight... as you can imagine I've done very little 'making' recently as a result!  However, this week I had to get rummaging through the boxes so I could find all the pieces & tools to make a necklace for my daughter who is going to a 1920's themed party.  Rather than the usual 'Flapper Girl' style she has gone for a more Downton Abbey dinner dress and I have followed suit with a long beaded necklace with focal tassel. 

I chose a large sequin covered bead for the focal point and decided to add tassels to it. Once you've made the focal tassel bead the rest of the necklace is a sinch..here's the step-by-steps:

I began by securing the thread to the bottom row of sequins and then threaded 2-3" length of bugle beads before sewing back up through them. This was followed by another few threads in and around the sequins before repeating with the next strand and so on..

Keep going, adding as many beaded strands as you can fit around the bottom of the bead. 

Next add a jump ring to the bottom of an eye pin..

Then sew more strands of beads onto the jump ring..

 Thread the eye pin up through the bottom of the bead...

Then turn a loop on the end of the wire so it will be ready to thread onto your necklace.

To make the long beaded part of the necklace, first sort out a pleasing arrangement of beads with gaps of around 2inches.

Then begin to knot them onto some thread (waxed cords or synthetic works well)

Work down the first side (work out how long you want the necklace)

Add the tassel bead to the center point and bead up the second side..

You can leave long ends on either side of the necklace to make it easy to tie and/or adjust the length.

You should now be ready to dance at Downton!


Happy Making!


All pictures & text (c) Addicted to Making 2014