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Easy-fast-fabulous: COS leather necklace DIY

The keep within the jewelry theme, today I want to show you how to make a super simple, super fast, chic leather necklace. I saw the original at COS (the stores can only be found in Europe, it's the more clean and grown up sister of H&M), but as always I couldn't get over the thought: I have everything for making it at home... why the hell would I pay 30€ for it?!!

excuse the quality, those are pics from my cellphone

So here's the tutorial:

Easy as pie. This picture actually inspired me to do the DIY bracelet roundup; I love to layer jewelry.

layered with DIY zipper bead necklace & DIY leather necklace based on this tutorial

Have a great friday, everybody!

DIY: color block t-shirt

Color blocking is a trend I wasn't too fond of at the beginning, but watching Geneva doing it made it grow on me (she really is an inspiration to me). Somewhere I saw these shirts by MANGO, retailing at 20€ they are a good deal. But I'm a bargain hunter and knew that I could make one for less. 

It's a great way to refashion any old shirt. For beginners I'd recommend using a fitted striped shirt, I used a mens shirt that I refittet.

You'll need:

° a striped (mens) shirt

° bright jersey, 0,4m

° scissors, seam ripper

° sewing machine

° marker

° optional: strips of silk for the shoulder seams to prevent them from stretching out

How-to:

1. Try on the shirt and mark where you want the bright jersey to start. If the shirt has a breast pocket that's in the way, now's the time to take that off. Do it carefully to avoid holes in the shirt, also you might want to stitch it back on after the shirt is finished like I did.

2. Lay the shirt flat on your working space and cut along the marks, it's super easy on a striped shirt as you can use the stripes as guides.

3. Use the top half as a pattern for the bright jersey. Simply cut off the sleeves and seperate front and back. If you are working with an oversized shirt, you have to cut the pieces down to your measurements. If you are a beginner, use an already well fitting shirt so you don't have to bother with that.

4. Cut out the pices from the bright jersey. Also cut one long strip of jersey (4cm wide) for binding the neckline later.

5. Assemble front and back through sewing the shoulder seams, using a stretch-stitch or a small zigzag stitch with a short stitch length. I added a strip of silk to them, going all the way from one shoulder over the back of the neckline to the other shoulder, to prevent them from stretching. A non-stretchy ribbon would work, too.

If your machine has trouble sewing through stretchy fabrics (mine has when I use synthetic knits), you can pin strips of toilet or tissue paper to the seam allowance and sew over the paper. Use some water to wet it and rip it away from the seams after you're done. The little pieces that are stuck under the thread will come off after a wash.

6. Finish the neckline. You can do it as you would with a bias tape or simply fold the strip lengthwise in half, iron it, sew it to the neckline, right sides facing, iron the seam allowance down on the inside and topstitch.

7. Sew the top piece to the bottom half of the shirt. This is also the time to take in the sides if neccessary.

8. Set in the sleeves, finish the hem of the sleeves (I rolled them up and secured them with a few stitches- esay, peasy) and sew on a front pocket if you like to. Tadaa.