Anthro Luya Bib Necklace Knockoff

I can’t believe we’re already at the end of Anthro Necklace Week – I hope you’ve been enjoying the week!

This season’s necklaces at Anthropologie are so different, lots of fun styles!
And one of the best parts about doing knockoffs – you can tweak the ideas and come up with your own colors and look!

That’s what I did with our last necklace – I loved the style of the Luya Bib – but I changed her colors up just a bit, to put us all in the mood for Fall. :)
(Though I think you could really wear this any time of year!)

I had some lovely Anna Maria Horner, Little Folks Voile that I thought would be perfect and I found some beads that matched great – I am loving how it came together!

Here’s mine –

And here’s the Original:
This little sweetie is $168. Do you think maybe instead of batting they have dollar bills padding it?
Or possibly their beads are rare colored pearls from oysters off the coast of Bora Bora?
It’s a mystery.

Anyway – let’s make a little more cost-friendly version!
(You’ll see that you need a lot in the way of beads – so make sure you snag a coupon or hit up the sales)

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Small amount of fabric – about 3″ x 12″
• Small pieces of felt, Pellon fusible fleece, and Heavy Duty Stabilizer
• 2 types of chain
• Assorted colors of beads – you’ll need at least 130 total
• Small seed beads – 22
• a little larger faceted beads – 11
• Bead Spacers (the little silver disks on the strands)  – about 160 (I bought 4 pkgs of 40)
• Bead Cording, Crimp Beads
• Jewelry Tools, Needle, Thread
• How To Do That page for basic Jewelry Tips

We’re going to start by making the bead strands – a total off 11 of them.
Start with the center strand, it will be the longest.

You can arrange your beads any way you want of course – I went for something similar to what was in the original.

Cut a longish piece of cording – about 20″ or so. Clamp one end to keep the beads from running away as you string them. This is not fun.
(Little Dollar Store clamps work great for this)

Thread the cording through a small needle, then begin stringing. Add your group of spacers first, then start adding beads.

Alternate spacers with the beads when you want them, and change up your colors as you go – this strand should measure about 4 1/4″.

Skip the last seed bead and run the needle back through all the beads, so that both ends are at the top. Tie a little knot in the cording.

Thread a crimp bead onto the two ends, loop around a jump ring, and thread back through the crimp bead. Crimp the bead and feed the ends back through a few of the beads.

One strand down!

Create 10 more strands. You’ll alter the bead and spacer layout a bit as you go – and you want the strands to get just a bit shorter – the strands on each end should be about 4″.
Make sure that the strands arebsymmetrical – I suggest creating two matching strands at a time and placing them on either side of your center strand, that way you can see your layout as you create.

Set your beads aside and cut out your fabric, felt and stabilizer. You’ll need a curved piece for the back out of felt, about 4″ long and in the center about 1 1/4″ tall.
Cut a piece of Heavy Duty Pellon a little smaller than that.
You’ll also need to cut out your fabric – it should be the same as the felt on the ends, but longer – more like about 10″ long. Cut a piece of fusible fleece a little smaller than this piece.

Cut two pieces of your accent chain – each about 2 3/4″ long. Sew these to the tops of the curved ends of the Stabilizer piece.

Sew the jump rings at the top of your bead strands along the bottom, curved edge of the stabilizer. Sew the middle one on first, then work out from there. They should finish up about an inch from each end.

Run a gathering stitch along the top and bottom of your fabric piece. You can start and stop this about one inch from each end.

Now we’re going to sew everything together. Place the stabilizer on the felt piece and place the fabric piece on top. Fold the edge of the fabric and felt pieces to the inside and sew them together with tiny stitches. I found it easiest to start at the top left and work towards the right.

Continue sewing everything together, working around the chains as you come to them.

You can see that it doesn’t have to be perfect. Just keep the stitches small. If people criticize your stitching then they are just too close to your chest. There are other issues at that point.

Continue sewing all the way around until the fabric is completely sewn to the felt backing.

Sew a length of your silver chain (or whatever you’re using for your top chain pieces) along the top curve of the fabric piece. The chain should be about 3 1/2″ long.

Cut two more lengths of the necklace chain – each 8″ long. Add them to the two short chain pieces on each side of the necklace.

Add a lobster closure on one side – you don’t need to add a jump ring on the other side since the chain is so large. Put a small bead on a head pin and add it to the chain on the other side.
(Remember to check the How To pages if you need help)

And that’s it!

Isn’t it fun? I love all the bead strands!

Apparently in all photos I must stand with my hand on my hip. Maybe it’s a mom thing. lol.
Also – I have the necklace shortened up here – but I think it would look great at a longer length too!

What do you think? I’d love to hear!

Make sure you come back on Saturday – all the necklaces will go up in 5 Giveaways on Saturday morning!! Woohoo!

Linking up at Sunday Scoop, Today’s Creative Blog, Met Monday, Skip to my Lou, Tutorials & Tips Tuesday, Shabby Creek Cottage, Quilt Story, My Repurposed Life and the other fabulous parties on the party page – make sure you check them out!