corliss

You've got to love a girl who says "Let's hang out over the summer. We can buy statement necklaces!" And though I guess this means I won't be shopping with Corliss any time soon, I do have a statement necklace for the time being. I had been planning this for a long time.

When I hacked off the hem of this Goodwill dress:

I was just trying to make it short enough to be wearable sans pregnancy. So I took quite a bit off. I used some of the fabric to make this:

Which I wear as a bow tie or strung on a headband. And the leftover I used to practice pleating. Then I was left with a pleated piece of floral fabric. Which, obviously, should bring to mind a necklace, so I sewed the top together, hemmed the bottom...

...And never found the right "slightly tattered, faded cream-colored ribbon preferably with beat-up lace trim" (as I wrote in my DIY Notes To Self .txt document), so I forgot all about it for a long time. Fortunately, when you finish school a month earlier than everyone else, you get really, really bored and do things like watch videos of the Spring Awakening cast, or learn how to cable-knit because you are too bored to get frustrated when you mess up six times in a row, or you start digging through your old art school supplies and WHAT IS THIS PLEATED THING DOING HERE?

So, some vintage buttons (bought from the nicest old people I have ever encountered at a garage sale) later,

An idea is formed. I went to my grandmother's stash in the garage to find some ribbon but failed. But I did find some crocheted lace. It was originally the blinding white you see on the top of this next picture:

But a bag of Earl Grey, some boiling water, a liberal pinch of coffee, and fifteen minutes later, the lace emerged looking appropriately yellowed and very matchy-matchy indeed, as shown in the bottom swatch of lace.

Add some cheesy wedding craft buttons...