Future shock

Look sharp in Lisa Steed Davey's futuristic silver and black collar necklace!

Lisa Steed Davey, MJ Designer

You don’t need a lot of leather, so look in charity shops or on ebay for off-cuts or an old piece of leather clothing.

Party season is upon us again, so instead of buying a new dress why not make this striking monochrome collar necklace in leather, satin, glitzy ribbon and sequins. It will give any black dress a new lease of life as well as attracting lots of compliments! Complete your look with a matching bracelet and earrings for extra style points.

Necklace

1. Download our collar template from here and use to cut out two pieces of black felt and matching fusible webbing. Snip two 54cm lengths of grosgrain ribbon. Iron the webbing to the felt pieces, then lay the ribbon on the webbing side of the felt with the long ends pointing out. Iron the felt with the webbing sides together to bond.
2. Cut several strips of black, matt silver, holographic and shiny silver leather measuring 1cm x 5cm. Fold each one in half and using a leather punch, make a hole near the raw edge. Trim pieces of silver glitter and black and ivory ribbon to the same length, singeing the raw edges to prevent fraying.
3. Start to sew the folds of leather in rows around the felt base. Make sure that the colour strips are always random and never sew the same type of ribbon or leather next to each other. Repeat, sewing the folds all over the base and overlapping each layer as you go.
4. After the final layer, cut a curved strip of black leather 5mm wide and long enough to cover all the raw edges of the last row. Make holes in the leather 5mm apart with a leather punch, then stitch to the choker, adding a silver sequin and black seed bead. Cut another felt collar shape, back with webbing and iron to the reverse of the necklace to cover the stitch work.

Bracelet

1. Cut a 1cm x 36cm strip of black leather and attach ribbon ends to each end. Secure an 8mm jump ring and a lobster claw clasp to one side and a 8mm jump ring and extension chain to the other.
2. Cut several 1cm squares out of the different leathers and ribbons. Place a square on top of the leather strip at one end and make a hole in the middle with a leather punch. Sew a sequin in the middle with a black seed bead on top, to secure. Make two holes in the black leather strip next to the square and sew on three seed beads. Repeat along the bracelet. This bracelet is worn by wrapping around the wrist twice.