So, first up on the back log of gift posts (yes, I now have a back log *laugh*) is a gift for my niece. One of our readers was cool enough to send me some ideas for cheap Christmas gifts and she sent me a link to a necklace made with marbles (thanks, Dorothy!). I immediately knew I wanted to make at least one of them for my niece, but now that I've made one, I really want to make one for my daughter too (as my son tends to destroy her necklaces for her, poor kid).
The necklace was pretty simple to make construction-wise, but it did take a while to turn the fabric right-side out as turning tubes of fabric is kind of a pain. Luckily I have small fingers, which helps a bunch when it comes to a project like this. I also found that fabric weight is definitely subjective. I grabbed a medium weight fabric (by my standards) to make the necklace and when I was done via the tutorial on the amount of marbles and knots involved my tails when tied are a bit shorter than I would have liked and definitely shorter than the ones she shows in her photographs. This necklace I might end up putting some tiny velcro dots on the back of to help close it instead of leaving the tails to knot to make my niece's life easier. Next time I think I'll see about making the necklace a bit longer as a precaution. Overall, though, I thought it turned out really cute.
Bright side, too, is I had a ton of marbles around here. I bought them when the kids were tiny thinking that I'd play marbles with them someday, but then my son got older and started sticking things like that immediately into his mouth and since marbles are a poster child for choking hazard, I put them in a jar and just moved them from one spot to another over the years. So, it's nice being able to use them for something :).
Total Time to Make Gift: About two hours (LOTS of time taken to turn tube right side out).
Total Cost to Make Gift: Nothing. The fabric was gifted to me (thanks for all the fabric, Heather!), the thread was gifted to me (thanks, Rox!) and the marbles I had hanging around the house.
So, there you are folks. One more gift down. Making anything cool this week?
I'm excited for all the gift posts! Next time you have a tube, try putting a safety pin at one end and scooting it through like you do when you put elastic through a casing. That's not a good description, but here's a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXhA7rvsSz4. You could make these necklaces out of so many fabrics!
ReplyDeleteThe necklace is so cute, Erika! I hope your niece (and daughter if you make one for her), really like the gift. Can't wait to see more of your gifts!
ReplyDeleteToday I made 2 more drawstring shoe bags, bring the total to 4 that I've made this week. These will be gifts for my daughters teacher, principal and EAs at my daughter's school. They were inspired by the fact that one of her EAs absolutely loves shoes. I really hope they like this gift!