So Sari!

Create a stir wearing linda steed davey's exotic beaded fabric collar necklace

Lisa Steed Davey, MJ Designer

Indian fabrics are available in a dazzling array of jewellike colours and patterns; the perfect foundation for this glamorous bib necklace! The green and gold material used here is a vintage piece, but this project can be adapted to any fabric, using the pattern to dictate the beading.

Necklace

1. Download our collar template from http://www.makejewellery magazine.com, then cut out two collar pieces from sari fabric and another of interfacing. Put the right sides of the fabric together and the interfacing on one side, then sew around using 1cm seams and leaving a gap (Fig.1). Snip notches into the curves and cut off the corners as shown, then turn the collar through(Fig.2). Press with an iron then slip stitch the gap closed.
2. If the sari fabric you are using has a pattern, plan your beading accordingly; for our example, large gold pearls and green pearls were used to create a diamond effect. To make the beaded stacks, thread on a gold sequin, a pink sequin, a green pearl and seven pink seeds. Take the needle back through the green pearl and sequins, so that the seeds create a beaded loop on top. Repeat to form a diamond shape in the centre of the collar, following the pattern of the sari fabric.
3. Surround the diamond with a line of gold pearls with a pink seed threaded on top. Create another line around this by stitching a pink seed in the centre of each diamond in the sari pattern. Fill the rest of the collar either side by sewing on gold sequins with three gold seeds stacked on top of each, again using the fabric pattern as a guide.
4. At the centre point of the necklace, on the outer edge, sew on a gold pearl, a pink seed, agreen pearl, a pink seed, a small gold pearl and seven pink seeds. Take the needle back up through the beads into the collar edge, starting from the small gold pearl, to form a long drop.
5. Stitch one gold pearl and a pink seed either side of the beads just added. Sew on stacks of a gold pearl, a green pearl and pink seed halfway up one side of the necklace, then repeat opposite. Connect ribbon ends to the necklace with flatnosed pliers, then attach a 6mm and a 10mm jump ring to both. Add an extension chain to one side of the collar and a clasp to the other.