Triple Braided Necklace {a Tutorial}

Here's the tutorial for the triple braided necklace for anyone who's interested! I made this necklace for the SYTYC contest during Dollar Store Crafts Week  so my materials had to come from a dollar store. You could do the same or you could probably find them at a craft store just as easy.

Materials:

Lace curtain (or lace material)

4 old necklaces like pictured above (or chain and a clasp closure)

hot glue

Wire cutters 

This necklace is made out of several braids. It's a little confusing to explain, so if this tutorial is not clear, let me know!! 

Step 1. Make 3 tiny Braids

Cut 9 1 inch strips of the lace. I am not sure how long I made mine exactly because I never measure. And then I kick myself when I'm writing a tutorial. :) The strips are approximately 24 inches long. 

Tie 3 strips together (loosely! you will untie that knot later) and braid all the way down. You can either tie a loose knot at the bottom or leave it. Then do this 2 more times. You should now have 3 tiny braids. 

Step 2: Make the medium sized braid with chain.

Now you tie those 3 tiny braids together loosely with the chain in the knot. Cut your chain with the wire cutters to be as long as one of the tiny braids. Braid the chain along with one tiny braid. (If you have a lot of chain you could tie in 3 pieces of chain and braid a chain along with each tiny braid. I would have done that but my supplies were limited because of the dollar store challenge.)

When you're finished, your medium braid should look like this. 

Step 3:Now REPEAT Steps 1 and 2 twice so you'll have 3 braids like  the one above. 

Confused yet?!

Step 4: Braid your three medium braids together into one big braid.

When you're braiding your medium braids into one big braid, you probably won't be able to tie it in a knot at the top. Just braid best you can and then untie all the temporary knots from the braids when you're finished so your ends look like the one above.   

Cut off any excess from the ends to make them (mostly) straight. You'll have to use wire cutters to cut the chain if needed.

Then take a strip of lace and fold it a few times so it's not so see-through and wrap it around the ends and hot glue it down on both sides. It's okay if the glue shows through some because you're going to wrap another strip around it. 

Then take another strip and wrap it really tightly around the end piece you just made and hot glue it to the back. If you pull back the wrapped piece just a little and stick your hot glue gun under it and then tuck the end of the wrapped lace in there, it looks much better than just gluing it on top. The picture above shows the tucked in end but it's hard to see! And that's how you want it to be. 

My wrapped piece on each end was hanging over the edge just a little and looked sloppy so I hand-stitched each end up using a slip stitch  to make it look neater. You may or may not need to do that depending on how your ends turn out. It did make for a nice clean end though. 

I kind of think they look like Sock Monkey hands. ha!

Then cut your necklace apart using wire cutters so you can attach them to your braid. I was lucky that my chain was the exact length I needed it to be. You may, however need to make the chains shorter if it doesn't land where you need it to. I always hold the chain in place with my fingers before gluing and take it to the mirror and move it around until you find the place it looks best. Mark where you need to cut the chain (if you need to) with your fingers, and then go cut it. Once your chain is the length you need,  glue each end to the ends of your necklace by placing hot glue on the back of the end, placing the chain on top of the glue, and then placing a folded up piece of lace on top of the chain. 

Here is the finished braid up close. If I did it again, I would add more chain, but I like it still. 

The braid was cute, but it needed a little extra flair so I hot glued some velcro to one end of the braid and also to a pom flower and a bow. (Click on the links to see the tutorials on how to make the flower and bow. For the bow, I follow her tutorial except I didn't round the edges.)

By having velcro on there I can change them out! 

And there it is! All finished!

I love it in white, but how cute would it be in a fun floral print?! Or a mix of a fun floral print and chiffon? I might have to make a new one to find out. :) :)

Thanks for reading! 

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