I must really have a thing for soft, fabric jewelry. First, the t-shirt necklace, now this. I have been admiring these leather necklaces by Handle & Spout for quite some time. Can I use the “imitation is the sincerest form or flattery” line again?
What you need:
Leather piece – approximately 12″ x 12″(if you are in Vancouver, check out Dressew for cheap leather in various sizes. I got a 24″ x 24″ piece for $7)
This template, printed out on heavy cardstock (The image is 300dpi, and when printed will be 3″ wide)
Utility Knife (like an x-acto knife)
Scissors
Needle & thread (matching your leather)
Instructions:
After you have printed out this template on heavy cardstock, cut it out with your exacto knife. This is my paper template (as you can see, my utility knife is not so exact):
Now on the back side of the leather (the rough side) trace your template in pen, like so:
Cut the shape out of the leather with scissors, making sure to cut just inside the pen marks so you don’t have any lines showing. To cut out the center, fold it and make a little snip with your scissors and then cut (like the one below). I tried to use the utility knife and it looked really rough and found scissors to be more accurate.
Continue cutting out the leather shapes until you have a bunch. I used 36 pieces to make a longish necklace, but it totally depends on how long you want it to be.
Fold one piece in half so the smooth side is on the outside. Then push half of the next piece through the hole as shown:
Now fold the second piece down and continue fitting them together:
Keep going, holding it up to your neck until it gets to be your desired length.
For the closure, you could do something fancy like a snap or a button. My necklace is long and I can just pull it over my head, so I folded the last loop over my first one and stitched it closed:
I feel (and look) pretty awkward about posting a picture of myself here, but so you can see the length of the necklace, and the size of the links, here it is:
Notes: You could also buy a leather jacket from a thrift store and cut it up. If you didn’t want to use leather, a good quality felt might look nice (just not the cheap stuff – I think it would end up looking like a kindergarten project) or you could use two fabrics fused together with double-sided fusible interfacing.
Click the thumbnail below for a full-sized version of the template:
Tutorial: Leather Chain Necklace
44 responses to “Tutorial: Leather Chain Necklace”
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You’re the best! I have been admiring this one for quite some time myself!
That is super cute! i love it, i love DYI, i am definitely going to make myself one
I’ve been thinking of trying to make one of these ever since I first came across Handle & Spout ($75 is just too far out of my budget), so I was very pleased to see your tutorial. You rock!
Super cute, thank you. I might try to make one out of felt (I’m a vegan). It looks great on you.
Love this idea! Thank you!
Thanks for sharing, it is awsome! Someday I will try it for sure!
I love this!
love love it love it! like how it comes to a point(?) at the end – most necklaces are ‘rouundy. does it come to a point?
nevermind — after further investigation I see that it doesn not come to a point — bing!
merci! the little links are very flexible so it can come to an almost-point, or be round.
Oh that is PRETTY! It’s going to look so good with my standard tank and jeans summer outfit. Thanks SO much! I’ll be linking to this as well.
I just found this through oneprettything, and wanted to say I will definitely share it with my chic friend, and as to your mention about looking/feeling awkward about your pic, you are simply a beautiful girl. You should always tell someone something nice if you can, so there you go. Thanks for the template!
This is fabulous.
So awesome!! We have a local leather jacket-making store in Portland where I can buy good-sized scraps for cheapo. Also, we have Goodwill outlets that sell stuff by the pound and you can find leather garments there pretty often. Great job!!
Wow,I just finished the t-shirt strips necklace this week,and here you are with another addiction!Since I am a felter I am going to try with one of my felt pieces!Thanks for your clever explanations!
Wow! you must have some patience. I love the look.
These would make a super cool curtain.
I saw this tutorial last week via WhipUp.net. I printed out the template, dug up a soft hide I’ve been lugging around for years, and spent a very pleasant weekend tracing and cutting. I’ve been wearing it ever since (even made a little corsage-style bracelet using up some of the teardrop scraps from the links) and have received many compliments. I send everyone to your website for the instructions. Thanks for the fantastic tutorial.
i think it would be cool to like attach that as like the callor or hems of a shirt
that is impressive, indeed
Amazing! I love this.
wow, that is really impressive
Love this and will be making one soon. Linking back to my blog.
you may have felt awkward but you look beautiful. this is very nice project but I don’t know if I have the stamina to cut out 30 odd pieces. I may shrink the template and make 3 link earrings. thanks for a great idea
I bet a little petite version done into a small circle could make a cute hair piece.
Thanks for showing the steps
it’s cool and lovely, must make one for myself and probably will make a series too 
Wow the work that goes into this leather piece is pretty detailed.. I would love to see a video of this being done would be cool to see how to keep it uniform with the leather
I made a necklace using your tutorial, too. I made up my own template and used pleather scraps instead of leather. Thanks for sharing this!
Here’s the necklace I made:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=337837.0
I saw this linked on craftzine the other day, love it so much I made a necklace of my own using your tutorial. Thanks so much for sharing. It can be seen at my blog http://mudnessa.blogspot.com/2010/02/old-jacket-new-necklace.html
Love your blog so much, added it to my reader.
LOVE.
gonna try it with home dec vinyl instead. ;+)
I think this would make a fantastic belt as well.
Just loved it! I certainly, will try making one of my own.
Beijinhos
Ana
Thanks for the tutorial. I love the necklace and bracelet I made.
http://asidetrackedmind.blogspot.com/2010/02/leather-chain-necklace.html
I just found ur site and am so happy I did. This necklace is super duper cute. I cant wait to thrift some nice soft leather jacket or purse to make one of these adorably sophisticated adornments… is that too many adjectives? Thanks for sharing
-Billie-
So pretty! Thanks for posting!
So awesome, I just got a bunch of beautiful scrap leather (from a local furniture stores where they were throwing the sample scraps away!) ~ thanks so much.
wow .tiz z toooooooo gooooddddd thks a lot..am gonna to make 4 me..
Found this via “one pretty thing.” I bought a pretty sizable leather “scrap” from the “as is” section of IKEA this weekend, not really knowing what I would do with it, but knew that for $5, I would find something to do with it. I’ll be making this tonight.
This would make a great handle for a purse too! Love it!
Jana
THis is absolutely brilliant! Super easy and super fabulous! could be short or long or even a BELT. Fantastic!
Best tutorial ever. I can’t wait to make myself one!
This is gorgeous. It would also make a fantastic headbeand. Just add some black elastic on the end and sew together. I am definitely going to try this out!
It’s fantastic,I like it very much!
Es fantastico,me gusta mucho!
Saludos!Regards!
Brillant idea,
really well executed and your photos are brillant
Beaut xxx.
50s Dresses