By General Crafts Contributor Michelle
Breathe a breath of fresh air into your Spring wardrobe with this pretty and easy-to-make accessory.
Here’s what you’ll need to make your own:
- 1 printed copy of Flower Necklace Pattern PDF and Flower Necklace 2 Pattern PDF.
- 2 squares of felt.
- Shank buttons. I used black 3/8″ and 1/2″.
- Necklace chain. I used 12″ of a gold colored chain.
- A lobster claw fastener that matches your chain.
- Jewelry wire to match your chain. I recommend a thicker wire, either 16 or 20 gauge.
- A needle and thread.
- Scissors.
- Wire cutters.
- Round nose pliers.
- Hot glue sticks and a glue gun.
To begin, use your printed pattern and cut out of your felt: 1 set of circles for flower 1, 2 sets of circles for flowers 2,3 and 4. You should have cut circles for 7 total flowers. Stack your first flower, largest circle on the bottom, to smallest circle on top. You can stack them evenly centered one on top of each other, if you like, but I prefer to stack so some of them are off center to add visual interest.
Fold the top circle in half, and cut a small slit in the felt where you want the center to be.
Insert the shank of the button through the slit, and push the circle up so it is snug against the bottom of the button. When you sew the button on, doing this will make it so the button is not sticking out on top of your flower, but rather make it look like it is part of the flower.
Using your needle and thread, sew through the stack of felt circles a couple of times (except the top circle with the button) to hold them together.
Then sew your felt circle button onto the top of the stack of circles that you just previously sewed together. Tie off your thread on the back of the stack. Repeat steps 3-7 for the remaining 6 flowers.
Cut the “backing piece” pattern piece from your felt. Arrange the completed flowers according to the diagram on the printed pattern (Or see above photo). Be sure that your flowers slightly overlap each other as they come toward the middle, with the largest flower on top.
Cut two 1-inch pieces of wire. Using your rounded pliers, bend them into a neat “u” shape.
Cut two equal lengths of necklace chain however long you want your necklace to hang down (mine were 6″ long). Attach the lobster claw fastener to one end. Place one wire “u” shape through the end of each chain, and place the open ends of the wire on either end of the “backing piece” felt (See above photo). Carefully glue the open ends of the wire onto the felt with your hot glue gun. Don’t worry, this part won’t show. Now, begin hot gluing your flowers onto the backing piece of felt, beginning with the #3 sized flowers on the ends that will cover the wire, and working in toward the middle, ending with the largest #1 flower. Be sure not to get glue onto your chain. I recommend dabbing the hot glue onto the backing piece of felt all around the wire “u” but not on it, and then sticking the flower onto the glue, leaving the curve of wire and chain sticking out slightly so it hangs freely. You’ll wind up with a much neater finish to your necklace if you dab the glue onto the backing piece of felt, and sticking the flowers onto it, rather than dabbing the glue onto the flowers and then sticking them down; Doing it that way you wind up with excess glue on areas not covered by the backing piece.
Try making variations of this necklace using multiple colors of felt on each flower, or even each flower petal. Use different sizes and colors of buttons for the centers, or try making all of the flowers one size. There are endless ways to make and arrange these flowers to make your own, custom accessories.
Happy crafting!
