Yes attempt. Well I tried my hand at jewelry making recently…

Okay, it was hardly jewelry but it was a start. I had a dress I was going to donate because it just never fit me correctly. Well as I was looking at it for the 10 millionth time in my closet, it dawned on me that I could actually use the rosettes on the dress for something else. I immediately decided I would make a bib necklace!

A bib necklace you ask?

{via etsy}

First thing was to remove the some of the rosettes with my seam ripper. Real easy.

Oh I forgot to add that before I did that, I went to Michaels and picked up a necklace chain and some jewelry do-dads (I don’t know what they are actually called… the package says findings but that’s strange).

Then I arranged the rosettes into a pattern I liked on a piece of coordinating felt and hot glued them down…

Then I cut off the excess felt…

And this is where is gets a little crazy… I wish I had a professional or legitimate way to explain to everyone how I attached the chain but I don’t. I pretty much just winged it. I took one the straight wire pieces (you can see them in the package above) and stuck it through the felt and bent it in half. From there I used one of the rings to attach the chain to the folded straight wire. Then I used my pliers to cut and bend the wire to secure it. I’m sure none of that made sense… you all probably know more about jewelry making than me… just bent it and twisted it until everything was secure and looked decent.

Before attaching the other side I measured the length on me and shortened the chain. It was as easy as loosening and opening one of the links to remove the end. And then the necklace was done!

I was actually really surprised with how it came out. Not too shabby for my first try! It was a great way to repurpose part of an old dress… and who doesn’t like more accessories and jewelry?!?

Let me know as always if you have any questions!