Embroidered Pendant DIY

Welcome to a new addition of the making jewelry posts and this time - just as I announced last week, we are going to make an embroidered pendant necklace.

For this project you need a cotton piece, felt patch, and embroidery floss and needle.

Take a jar lid / tin can lid and draw until you get just a little above the center / middle of it. Draw a straight line to mark the upper edge.

 

Draw along the outer edges leaving 0.2" / 5mm allowance  for the filled edge.  



 

 

 

 

Sketch the floral scene and then transfer it onto the cotton piece.

 

Put it into the loop and choose desired colors.

 



 

 

For my flowers I used DMC / Ljubica (Unitas) floss:

 

1. DMC Yellow 972

2. DMC Beige 739

3. DMC Red 816

4. DMC Green 3346

5. DMC Navy 311

6. DMC Greyish / Bluish (no number) - sorry!

7. DMC Coral Pink 758

8. Ljubica Pink 526

9. Ljubica Orange 450

 

Here you can find Floss Conversion Charts.

 

It doesn't really matter where you start - I always start working from left to right, so I started with the yellow daisy first.

 

For this pendant I used three basic stitches: the satin stitch, lazy daisy and French knots.

 

Janet has a magnificent blog called Stitch School which I often use as reference for stitches and you can learn how to make the satin stich here.

 

 

 

 

Next, I used the same color to make some French knots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the red rose I also used the satin stitch but I did it horizontally this time (notice the difference between the yellow satin stitch and the red one).

 



 

 

 

Added the orange one (and the leaves - coming up).

 

 

For the navy and the grey flowers I used the lazy daisy stitch.

Worked the flowers on the right side (all made in satin stitch) and I left the coral pink one unfinished because I want it over the edge for effect.

 

Now this is optional. You can work the edges and afterwards cut the fabric as close as you can to the embroidery work, but I don't like that method because some of the threads are going to peek and it is a really messy job. So this I what I did.

I took the piece off the loop and cut it out - leaving about the same allowance as I did for the edge.

 

 

Next I cut out a felt piece for the back - the same size as the pendant without the second allowance. And this is another no-no for me. Since I never glue anything onto fabric especially not on embroidered pieces (not that I haven't tried - it turned out awkward and grose), when filling in the edges the felt back gets filled too. You'll see what I mean - just scroll below.

 

Cut the fabric closely to the edge so that it gets worked better.

 

 

 

 

Pin the felt patch onto the cotton fabric. Here I finished the last flower. I folded the cotton, slipped it under the felt and satin stitched the center of the flower and the pink petals.

Next, the edge filling.

 

 

And that is it. Add jump rings at the sides to which you attach a metal chain and your new embroidered pendant necklace is ready to go :)

Some of my other stitched pendant necklaces here and a here.