Arty Necklace

​Here are the directions to make this arty necklace.  Have fun!
 
Materials
11 regular size pipe cleaners
Various colors of Sari ribbon (or thin strips of silk/cotton/poly — whatever you have in your scrap bin)
Hairy yarn remnants (Eyelash yarn or any other textured yarn)
Various colors of thread (solid, variegated, cotton, poly, metallic, anything you have
Colorful elastic hair ties (adult or child size)
Light weight rubber/metal charms
Plastic beads
16mm jump rings
Rattail Cording
Couching foot (optional but very handy!)
 
Directions

• Put on couching foot and lower feed dogs.  If you don’t have a couching foot, use your normal zig-zag foot.
• Wrap a pipe cleaner with sari ribbon.
• Thread your machine with matching or variegated thread.
• Set your machine to the widest zig-zag stitch and cover the pipe cleaner with thread, attaching the sari ribbon to the pipe cleaner.  If you have a couching foot, you can move the pipe cleaner backward and forward to get a more varied look.
• Wrap yarn around the sari-covered pipe cleaner and repeat the same zig zag stitching over the yarn-covered pipe cleaner to attach the yarn to the pipe cleaner.
• Make 11 of these in a variety of colors
• Cut the pipe cleaner in half and form a circle, bending the ends together.  Put aside the other half to make another necklace.  You should now have 11 pipe cleaner circles.
• Arrange the colors to your satisfaction in a line.
• Starting at one end of the line, open a jump ring and add a bead, charm and elastic hair tie.
• While the jump ring is still open, attach this ring to both pipe cleaner circles. Close the jump ring.
•  Continue until you have 11 pipe cleaner circles joined together by jump rings.
• Choose the color of the rattail cord and thread your machine to match that color.
• Cut two lengths of rattail cord to 14 inches.
• Thread one end through one side of the necklace and fold over about 2 inches
• Using a zig-zag stitch, attach the folded over part of the cord to the longer cord.
• Do this for the other side.
• Tie the two cords together and you are done!

 
I know this sounds complicated, but really, its not.  Once you get the hang of making the pipe cleaner circles and how to attach these together with jump rings, it goes pretty fast.  Every time I wear this necklace, people notice it and love it.  I’ve listed the materials I use but feel free to substitute your own.  I tend to keep everything light-weight but I encourage you to experiment using the materials in your stash.