Jersey Necklace Tutorial

This crafty "upcycling" project is so much fun! I have found myself going through my closet several, several times to find shirts that I don't wear very much in attempts to reincarnate them as a necklace.  I have found that the ideal jersey necklace will be created with shirts that have no side hems.  Otherwise, all other shirts will have hems on both sides.  This is still okay.  I will later explain how this "hem factor" will play out in the final product. 

1. PICK YOUR SHIRT.  You must pick some sort of t-shirt/jersey blend shirt because the material must be able to stretch.  I picked this green t-shirt that I used to wear during the summers at Prairie View.  These types of shirts don't have side hems and work the best when creating a necklace. 

2. LINE UP THE BOTTOM HEM.  You will need to line up the bottom hem so that both layers lay flat on top of each other.  Cut off the hem.  You wont' need it.

3. CUT "RIBBONS."  Proceed to cut the shirt into "ribbons" that are 1 inch to 1.5 inches wide. 

4. STRETCH THE "RIBBONS."  Once the shirt is cut into "ribbons," stretch the "ribbons" as far as they material will let you.  The "ribbons" will curl and look like this.  (This shirt had side hems.)

5. ASSEMBLE YOUR NECKLACE.  This is where you use your creativity.  When you assemble your necklace or necklaces, you can choose whatever colors or designs of "ribbons" you want to use.  I will show you some different options that I've made. 

This is the necklace I created out of my green tshirt. 

You can see that it is seemless. 

This necklace is made from a black tank top that I had.  This tank top had seems on the side.  I cut the fabric where the seems and as a result, you get a shorter necklace.  Originally, I tied the two ends of the "ribbons" together but then it got bulky.  So, I grabbed my hot glue gun and glued the two ends together like this:

Add some hot glue to the end of the "ribbon." 



Then place the other end of the "ribbon" on top of the glue and close. 

Be careful! The glue is hot!

You will need to hide the part of the "ribbon" that you have glued together, so pick another ribbon and wrap it around all the "ribbons."  Tie it and hide the excess underneath the "ribbons" around it.

As I've been making these, I've also thought about adding some larger beads to the "ribbons" to add some more dimension and glitz.  I hope to go to Hobby Lobby sometime this week (because it's half price jewelry week) and find some beads that would work so I can take pictures of the ideas in my brains. 

Hope all of these instructions make sense!