tutorial: fabric chandelier earrings

UPDATE: You can now purchase a kit to make these lovely earrings! Click here to check it out!

I don’t make jewelry. Partly because I love buying handmade jewelry (my #1 vice when attending craft shows), and partly because the materials don’t intrigue me enough to want to make things out of them. I’m more interested in the finished product than the parts.

But – and you already know this – I love fabric. And for a while I’ve had vague intentions of making jewelry out of fabric. As much as I love handmade jewelry, I haven’t found much in the way of fiber jewelry that I actually like.

Today, while procrastinating when I should’ve been sewing ipad covers for the Art Star Craft Bazaar, I made these:

They took FOREVER but it was so much fun and I am so very in love with them, I thought I’d share how I did it!

There are a ton of tutorials out there on how to make fabric button earrings and the like…but for me, there’s no point to earrings that aren’t swingy and dangly, know what I mean?

materials needed
I used less than a quarter yard of quilting cotton to form the “petals.” You could probably make two pairs of these with one fat quarter.

I attached the petals to super skinny 1/8″ wide satin ribbon with tiny 6mm jump rings. The earrings are finished with french hooks, because like I said, I need my earrings to be swingy.

You’ll also need matching thread and a super-sharp hand needle, plus a sewing machine and a hot iron.

making the fabric petals
The fabric portion of these earrings are actually slightly modified petals of the flower hair clips I make.

1. Cut bias strips of your chosen fabric 1.5″ wide. Then sew them into tubes with right sides together, using a 3/8″ seam allowance. Trim the seam allowance off, turn them right side out, and iron them flat with a hot steamy iron. Make sure the seam stays to one edge.

2. Cut your flat bias tubes into short pieces that you’ll sew into petals. For each earring, you’ll need three pieces 3.25″ long, and three pieces 4.25″ long.

I had these bias tubes leftover from making the ruffles on the thalia classic handbag from my 2011 spring collection, so I used three different coordinating prints.

No reason you couldn’t use a single print for these earrings, or even a solid color. Or, you could make every petal different. A great way to use up small scraps! These would look fantastic in silk dupioni, or something sheer (oh, I’ll be making more, for sure!).

start with your ribbon
I used really skinny ribbon with tiny jump rings because that’s what I had in my stash, but there’s no reason you couldn’t use wider ribbon and bigger jump rings, if that’s the look you want.

3. Start by cutting a 7″ long bit of ribbon and tying a knot in the center around a jump ring. Eventually the french hook will attach to the finished earring here.

4. Next, you need something to hang your petals from, so slide some more jump rings onto the ribbon, and secure them in pairs, the way you would with a D-ring buckle on a ribbon belt.

I decided on six petals, so I have three pairs of jump rings, more or less evenly spaced apart. You could easily add or subtract pairs, obviously. They aren’t sewn onto the ribbon, but they don’t slide at all, the double thickness of ribbon keeps them in place quite nicely.

make your petals
5. Join the opposite ends of the bias strip together, so its folded end curls in to form a petal shape. Thread a jump ring onto your needle, and secure the raw ends of the petal with a single wide stitch.

6. Next, pull the thread tight so the top edges of the petal fold together tightly, making sure the jump ring (and its opening) is protruding from the top.

7. Secure the jump ring to the petal with a few stitches (3 should do it – you don’t want too much thread bulk), and then wrap the raw edges with your thread.

Bury the end of the thread underneath the wrapping, and them trim off the excess.

lather, rinse, repeat
Almost done! Repeat steps 5-7 for all of your petals. If you’re using different fabrics, take a moment once all twelve are finished to decide on a pleasing arrangement.

8. Join your petals to your ribbon using the jump rings, pairing a small petal with a large one for each pair of jump rings. (Use a pair of jewelry pliers to gently open the jump ring at the top of each petal, and slip it into the jump ring on the ribbon.) I tried to make sure the petals curled in opposite directions.

Viola! My earrings turned out to be about 4.5″ long, so they brush my collarbones. I haven’t even had them for 24 hours and they are already my new favorite thing!

These are perfect for me: colorful and dramatic, but still quite casual, since they are made of cotton fabric. I’m definitely going to store them hanging; I’m afraid if I lay them down in a jewelry box the petals will get crushed…they are a little small to iron smooth again.

If you make a pair, I’d love to see them!

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