Three!

Here's my third project from the Magical Random-Envelope-of-Junk. (For first-time readers, please see previous posts; I'm not really crazy.)

Behold necklaces...



...made from zippers!



There are lots of zipper creations out there on the internet - I love the many zipper roses and brooches I have seen. But I have been a little intimidated to try one; I've never been able to roll a ribbon-style flower in that crafty way those clever sewing people have. So I came up with this idea, 'cause I am all about the simple.

All I had to do here was use two of these little guys:




They're called ribbon ends, and you can find them at craft stores, any bead shop and probably some fabric shops. I just folded down the excess fabric at the top of the zipper, and pressed the ribbon ends closed with pliers. I attached short lengths from a deconstructed thrift-store chain, and a clasp. Add a pendant, and your zipper necklace is done.


(Simplify: if you don't have pliers, the ribbon ends are easy enough to close by hand, just squish between your fingers. Even simpler simplify: you don't need to use ribbon ends at all! There's ABSOLUTELY NO REASON you couldn't just sew the chain-segment on with needle and thread.)

The funnest part: picking out a pendant to hang from the zipper. You will want something nice and big to balance out the wideness of the zipper at the bottom.




I chose two rose pendants from my handmade stash. I made them using these upcycled oddments:


I bought the black poker chips at the dollar store. I found this old, slightly weird-looking stamped-metal earring at a yard sale. I pressed polymer clay into the rose part, baked and painted it. Glue rose to poker chip, drill a hole...voila pendant.




I also tried some shell flowers, for a different look in which the zip is partially hidden:



I was surprised by how wearable these turned out to be. They have the additional, amusing feature of being zippable! You can actually shorten the necklace a little bit by zipping it up until the bottom of the pendant just hides the bottom ends of the zipper.


Hooray! Another fun Dollar Store Crafts-inspired project. Three down, seven to go.