This Anthropologie bib necklace served as inspiration.

As many of you know, we are the DIY experts for University Chic, a great blog and resource for college-aged women. One of our editors there mentioned that she recently bought a necklace at Anthropologie for $10, marked down from more than $200.  Upon inspection, she discovered that it was little more than a hat brim, ornately covered over in fabric and beads. Then she asked if we’d give it a shot at recreating it.

I totally balked. As much as I love DIY, I have never attempted to make a piece of jewelry – nevermind the recreation of an Anthropologie piece!  But I had to admit I was intrigued by the challenge.  Who wouldn’t want to make their own jewelry?  So with some trepidation, I said yes. Then I combed the Anthropologie site for a full two days looking for inspiration and trying to figure out how in the world I could pull this off.

I saw several pieces that appeared to have the hat brim shape – like this one, and this one and this one. I began to see a pattern. Lots of layers. Lots of beads.  The occasional charm. So I headed over to Michael’s to comb the aisles and see if inspiration struck. The first thing I found that I really liked were some hardy chains under the “forged” brand.  Next door to those were some faux-brass charms from the “Nouveau” collection.  I liked the idea of the charms being covered in chains.  I then happened to walk by some sequins and it came together in my head – a sparkly collar-like necklace, covered in charms, covered in chains. With little idea on how I would actually make this, I headed home to start experimenting.

Here’s what you’ll need!

• One hat – any old hat will do
• A sharp pair of scissors
• A piece of fabric – large enough to cover whatever hat brim shape you will be making. I used dark gray jersey material – what used to be the lower half of some old yoga pants
• Your chosen adornments
• A glue gun
• Needle and thread
• Patience!

And here’s how you make it:

Step 1: Cut off the cap of the hat, leaving just the brim. Hold the brim up against your chest, at necklace height, and decide how thick you want it to be.

Step 2: Using a very good pair of scissors or a super-sharp X-acto knife, cut out the shape of your necklace. I kept it simple – I followed the U-shape of the brim, and trimmed it to about an inch.

Step 3: The hat brim.

Step 3: Place the brim of the hat against your fabric and trace its shape. Then, allowing for at least a half inch on all sides (to glue down to the brim) cut it out.

Step 4: Sewing sequins in the shape of the brim.

Step 4: If you go with the same design I did, first sew the sequins onto the fabric (which was a piece of dark gray jersey material that used to be the lower half of some old yoga pants.)

Note: This is a very time-consuming step – nearly four hours of sewing the sequins! I’m not a very good sewer so I used a rudimentary technique  – first I took the needle and went up through the fabric. Then, I slipped the sequin over the needle and  secured it to the fabric on the down stitch. I repeated this in an overlapping pattern to fill in the entire bib.

Step 5: Once your sequins are finished, sew the charm directly over the sequins. Just a few tight stitches should keep them in place. Feel free to go through the holes in each sequin to secure the charms to the fabric.

Step 6: Sew your chains in the desired pattern over the length of the bib. I created a scalloped pattern so that the chain would hang just slightly beneath the lower edge of the necklace.

Don't be afraid to get messy when you're sewing on the chains and charms. No one will see this part!

Step 7: Almost there! Now that your bib is complete, hot glue the entire piece to the hat brim. Pull the extra fabric tight if you don’t want it to show.

Step 8: Decide how the bib will hang around your neck – will it be a delicate chain or a more feminine ribbon? Secure by sewing or hot gluing at the desired length.  For mine, I orginally had  a ribbon, but it proved too much once I had all the sequins sewed on, so I swapped out a chain.

Or, do you prefer the more feminine ribbon? Secure by sewing or hot gluing at the desired length.

And here is the finished piece!  Is it Anthropologie worthy just yet? I’ll be honest – not quite.  But by perfecting the steps above I do hope to have something Anthro-shelf worthy soon!

Finished! Just decide your chain and you are ready to rock.