Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Upcycled Sock Necklace Tutorial- Like a T-Shirt Necklace

 photo 26d6e17a-e204-4993-bfd4-7a2cf89eefc2_zps5eca82c8.jpgIn the crafting and upcycling world, T-shirts are very beloved, as they allow for a huge variety of crafts to be done with them, and most people can get their hands on t-shirts easily. But though people do have excess t-shirts often, usually those t-shirts can be put to good use, unless it was really ratty. But who wants to craft with a really ratty t-shirt anyhow?
Basically, people are taking something useful they have and turn it into something else. Still better than buying craft material for a project, but even better than that is to take something that can no longer be used, and turn it into something useful.
Take socks, for example.
Socks get holes very easily. Often the upper portion of the sock is perfectly good, even when there are holes next to the toe. Or the sock is perfectly good, but it no longer has its pair.
Socks, are therefore, one of my favorite crafting materials.

For inspiration, I look for crafts made with old t-shirts and see if I can make them with socks. How do you make things with socks? Well, you just turn the socks into yarn, as I show in this post.
One of the things I've seen a lot is t-shirt necklaces. I thought to myself- hey, I can make those from socks.

So I did. The necklace I'm wearing in that pic is made out of old socks. 3 socks, in particular- one adult sock and 2 baby socks, one magenta, one pink, and one pale yellow, but you can use any color socks that you want.


It took only a few minutes, and required no sewing. The only expense involved was a bit of hot glue, the only equipment needed: a glue gun and fabric scissors.
I think it came out really cute and funky. If you think it works better for a kid, go ahead and make it for a kid. But I like dressing funky at times, depending on my mood, and I think this can work perfectly well for adults that are young at heart.
And guess what- Martha Stewart and Queen Latifah made a T-shirt necklace together, so it can't be too terrible for an adult to wear. ;)
And if you don't like it, tough luck! I do!


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So, how do you make it?

Well, first get three socks that are brightly colored, and are color coordinated with each other. You need at least one adult knee length sock, and ideally one baby or kid sock, and the third can be either adult or kid. Make sock yarn out of the knee sock, and one other sock, leaving one baby sock whole.

Loop your length of sock yarn at least 4 times, possibly more if you can, so that the loops are long and fall where you'd want them to fall when wearing them as a necklace. Make the loops so that they gradually increase in size. (This isn't 100% important, because you can adjust the length of the loops after.)

Tie the ends of the yarn together with a double knot. Now you'll have four loops of yarn and one knot.

Using the other length of sock yarn, wrap the knot and the 3 other pieces of yarn near it so that you have a 2-3 inch length of wrapped area, and then wrap it back on itself, this time gluing it down.

Cut your baby sock into circles, as we did in this upcycled sock flower headband tutorial, and then stretch the loops so the edges of the fabric curl in. Place the circles on top of each other. Take one of the loops and cut it open. Gather the socks together in the middle, and wrap the cut loop tightly around it one or two times, then tie it shut. Flare and spread the sock loops so that it looks flower like.

Take a short length of a different colored sock yarn- I used a few extra inches from the same sock that I used to make the pink loops, so that it would be coordinating in color, and make a tight spiral, and then glue it down to the center of the flower with a glue gun.

Glue this flower onto the length of wrapped necklace that is covering the knot.

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I got this sweater free from the last clothes swap I went to.
Awesome stuff, those clothes swaps are!

Wear in good health!
Let people be surprised when they hear this cute accessory of yours is made out of old socks.

Check out these other crafts I made from old socks-





If you like accessories, here's some other cheap homemade accessories, mostly upcycled:




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How often do you have holy socks or do you lose pairs? What do you do with old socks? Toss them? Or do you have some other use for them?
Have you ever heard of or seen t-shirt necklaces before? How about sock necklaces?
Are you an upcycler? What's the last thing you upcycled? What has been your favorite upcycling project?

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    1. So easy to bully someone from behind a computer screen, isn't it?

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