Howdy people !

I hope life is good & that you are enjoying your Summer/Winter, wherever you are !

Today, I’ll be explaining to you how to get practical, recycling an old piece of fabric or leather into something else. Yes, we’ll be upcycling giving a new life to something that has become useless !

What I have used here, in my own making process, is a piece of leather, not that I’m fond of animal products, but it’s basically a leftover from some shoes that fell apart a long time ago, before I became a vegetarian. And I certainly did not want to let it go to waste ! So I had kept it, in the hopes of recycling it into something else sooner or later Which is now done !
You can use whatever fabric you have, whether it be cotton, synthetic material, leather, or whatever. Note that leather will be hard to manipulate in this process, so you might as well use something not too thick, and if you use a soft fabric, it may not have enough strength of its own to stand in place. A good choice is something slightly rigid, so that it holds into place once you have sawn it.

What you will need :
- Leather, or any other kind of slightly rigid fabric, enough of it to cut out the petals (see below),
- A needle to sew, something strong enough to go through your material,
- Some thread, choose a color close to your fabric, it will look nicer,
- A simple piece of fabric to cut to the shape of your final work, to hide the back stitching,
- Some linen (or equivalent) laces, at least 3 meters (about 10 feet),
- Some beads, you can use semi-precious stones if you like working with pretty materials, I have used amethyst.
- Some good mood & energy to get going

First, start by cutting out the petals you will need, to the correct shape and size. Use a pair of quality scissors, as to not damage your fabric. I have created an example, here on the right, you can click it, enlarge it (scale is 1:2) and print it out to use as a model, if you need it.
The  petals have been disposed together in the way they will need to be arranged for stitching. There are two rows and a center petal. To work on your petals, be careful to place the “nice” side of the fabric upside.

Once you have gotten the petals ready, you can attach them all together. The easiest way to do so is to start with the big back petals, you will attach them together at their base, doubling your thread and slightly pulling more than needed, as to make the fabric a bit wobbly. They will be all attached, without space, at their center, forming a 5-branches round star. Make sure that your thread is tightly secured in your creation and finish your work.
Start sewing  the smaller petals together in the exact same fashion than the bigger ones. Once you are done, place and rotate them so that one smaller petal appear in between two larger petals, on your work. Once you are satisfied with the positioning, you can then attach the smaller petal flower to the bigger one. Make sure, again, that everything is tightly holding together. Your work needs to be steady and solid, as it will be worn and will have to stand body and neck moves.

The next step is to fold and stitch the petals together, so that they finally get to look like a rose, and not just a cartoon flower with round petals. The diagram on the right shows more or less what it should look like.

For this final step, fold the petals back, and attach them to the core of the petal. By now you should get something that looks very much like my first picture. You can now use the one small petal you have left over : fold it, stitch it together like the others and attach it at the center of your creation, as it is the center of your flower.
Once you are done with attaching all the petals together, cut the piece of fabric to the size of your whole flower, slightly smaller, so that it does not show on the front, once it will be sewn to the back. Put it in place. Make sure to attach it in the middle as well, as some laces will be attached in that very place. So, it is better to make sure every piece of the work is interdependent.

We are now almost done : take your laces, cut about 4-5 strings that are roughly 50 cm long (19,5 inches), tie all your threads together on both ends, to ensure they’re not all going to go all over the place. Attach the center part on the back of your rose, make sure it is solidly stitched into place.
Now, turn your rose around, and add the final touch : on a small piece of linen thread (10 cm / 4 inches), tie a knot, then thread a bead, tie another knot slightly above, and thread another bead. Keep on doing so, until you have about 4 beads on your lace, and now, create at least 2 other such laces. Once you are done, assemble them together at the base of the center petal and attach them tightly.

Voilà, you now have an upcycled rose necklace, all made by you !!
What a fine piece it is, wear it with love & think about all the other things you can now create

I hope you enjoyed this Do-it-yourself article ! I will try and make more of these
Lots of love,
Angie