Just Make: Peacock Necklace

All week I knew there was a get-together coming up for a friend's birthday, and I wasn't sure I would be able to finish her present on time.  But this afternoon, my oldest left early for a sleepover and my husband took the other two to the pool, and suddenly I found myself in an empty house!  These types of necklaces are so easy, you really can make the whole thing in less than an hour.  Also, although I did add some detail with machine stitching,  if you used iron-on paper, you could do this without touching a sewing machine.

Per usual, I began with a thrifted t-shirt and some scraps from my knit jersey bin.  I also pulled out my metallic silver thread which only gets used on special occasions.

To create the necklace I cut the hem off of the t-shirt and marked out two strips about an inch and a half wide across the bottom of the shirt.

After cutting the strips I held them at the seams of the shirt (or where the seams would be if your shirt doesn't have them) and stretched them as far as I could. I rotated them and held on at the halfway point and stretched again.   The material simply rolls onto itself hiding any raw edges.

Now I turned my giant circle into a figure eight and doubled the loops onto each other to form the necklace.  You can actually cut more strips and make a nice lush necklace/scarf using this technique as well.  Because it hit ninety degrees in our town today (highly unusual) I wasn't in the mood to make a scarf.

To make the pendant I approached it as an applique and used the techniques from my tutorial and used lightweight fusible webbing.  Any type of iron-on paper would work, too.  I drew out the front of the feather with all of the extra feathery details on one piece of fabric, and then just the main part of the feather for the back to add some stability.

After pressing those two pieces together I cut out the turquoise and purple pieces to form the eye of the peacock feather.

With the pendant and the necklace finished, the last step was to make a "jump ring" from fabric.  Cutting a strip from the sleeve I made a smaller strip of pulled and rolled fabric to work with. I threaded the strip through a couple of extra beads to add a nice detail and then sewed the strip closed around the necklace. 

Attach the pendant to the strip, and before you know it, the necklace is complete, just as your family returns from swimming. Of course, this necklace could be made with a variety of pendants.  I am already thinking of a nice fall-colored one featuring oak and maple leaves, or something more festive for Christmas.  What color scheme and pendant would you use?