How to Make a Yo-Yo Bead Necklace
A yo-yo necklace is made by stitch-ruffling small circles of fabric and grouping them together to form a large, artistic "statement" necklace. This is a great use for all of the scraps of fabric you may have lying around that are too small to do anything else with. A yo-yo necklace will make a bold statement, especially if you want to make it very large and it will get you noticed. They are like a piece of art that you can wear around your necklace and it will be nice to know that you made it yourself.
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Things You'll Need
- Fabric
- Card stock
- Pen
- Glass
- Scissors
- Needle
- Thread
- Jump rings
- Pliers
- Chain
- Wire cutters
- Clasp
Instructions
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1
Set the mouth of a glass or cup down on a piece of card stock and trace around the outside with a pen to get a perfect circle. Keep in mind that whatever size your stencil is, your fabric yo-yo will have a half size smaller after you make it. Change up the sizes of your yo-yos by making stencils for large ones and smaller ones. Cut out your stencils.
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2
Lay your pieces of fabric face down and trace the stencils on the fabric with a pen or some sewing chalk. Trace as many circles as you want for your necklace and cut them out.
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3
Thread your needle and fold one end of the circle down so that the side of the fabric that you want facing out is folded over the back side at about 1/8 of an inch. Run a simple straight stitch through this fold.
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4
Gently scrunch the fabric together around the stitches and pull the two ends of the thread that are sticking out of the side so that the edges close to form a bag-like shape. Triple or quadruple knot the two ends together as close to the fabric as possible and trim the excess thread with your scissors. Press the fabric with your hands to flatten it. Repeat steps three and four for your other "yo-yo beads."
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5
Lay all of your yo-yo beads out on a flat surface and arrange them into the formation that you want your necklace to have. It doesn't need to be symmetrical and you can alternate which side is showing for the different yo-yo beads. Connect the sides of the yo-yos where they touch by pushing open jump rings through the fabric, pushing it through the fabric of the next yo-yo and closing it. Use a pair of pliers to open and close the jump rings.
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6
Attach a jump ring to both ends of your yo-yo formation to connect it to a chain. Cut a piece of chain in the middle with a pair of wire cutters to make sure the two sides of chain are the same length. Connect one end of each chain to the two jump rings and close the jump rings. Put a clasp on the ends of your chain and the necklace is done.
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