Stylish Woven Wire and Denim Choker

This necklace combines style with shabby, making it able to perfectly compliment casual or dressy. You can use the plated wire in colors to make it even more unique, or you could even go so far as to dye the denim. Follow this tutorial to learn how to make your own style.

1. Denim

2. Ruler

3. Scissors

4. Fray check (optional; I didn't use it)

5. Hole punch (mine is a 1/16th)

6. Paper for making notes and mock-up pattern

7.Marker/pen

8. Yarn or thread

9. Files to smooth cut wire ends

10. Wire (I am using 16 gauge aluminum, but you could use copper. Plated copper in colors would be cool)

11. Wire cutters

12. Round-nosed pliers (you might not need them)

13. Jump rings

14. Lobster clasp or other type of necklace closure

Measure the necklace size with a piece of yarn/string or a sewing tape measure. Wrap the yarn around your neck and find where the end of the string will meet the other. Pinch that. Take the string off your neck (don't let go of that piece!) and line it up with a ruler. This is your neck size. I wanted this necklace to sit high on my neck, so mine was 12 inches.

Knowing that I would have to make clasps, I took of 2 inches from my original neck size, which turned out to be perfect!

Now I measured my fabric. I measured out 10 inches by 1 3/4 inches, or 10 inches long, 1 3/4 inches tall.

Now you should have a strip of material.

Now we will make a paper version of our material.

I have included a diagram I made on the computer to try to make things make more sense. It may be able to better explain what I mean and where my dimensions are.

Draw out on a piece of paper the same dimensions as your necklace.

1/4 inch from the outer side edge I mark two dots. I didn't measure between the two dots; I just did it. With my ruler to make sure it is straight, I make the same two dots on the opposite side. These dots are shown in red on the diagram.

I line my ruler up with the diagram so that I have inches from 1 to 10. 1/4 inch in from the top and bottom sides, I mark dots at every inch. These are shown in green in the diagram.

Then I make x's going from each dot to the opposite dot in a diagonal pattern. This is my mock-up.

Using the dimensions from the paper mock-up, I mark the same markings on the material. I was going to try to put the pattern on top and mark through it, but that was too hard, so I just had to remeasure.

Once I have marked all the little dots (don't put the x's), I punch the holes with my hole punch.

Now with your yarn or thread, cut off a good length. I will admit, I guessed at my length, but since I already did it, I can tell you that for 10 inches of material I needed about 36 inches of yarn.

Double your thread and find the middle point.

Begin threaded the denim, starting with two of the end holes. Put one end thread through one of the holes on the front side, and put the opposite end in the other hole. Pull the thread all the way through until you have a small handle.

Flip the material over. Cross the two threads and put them through the holes that were opposite where the side they originally came from.

Flip back to the front. Cross these over as well, threading them through the holes they were opposite diagonally to. It will make an x shape.

Flip back to the reverse and continue repeating these steps until you have come to the end of the material.

Pretend you are making a loop on the end. That loop will be made later with wire and will be for the jump ring and clasp to attach. Cut the thread where you know you have enough for the loop.

Then rip out all that work you just did. Ha ha.

Measure your wire by your length of string. Since we already used the string to thread, we will know from that how much wire we need.

Cut the wire with the wire cutters.

File the ends of the wire with a file. They should be smooth so that they can't accidentally be a pain in the neck (haha).

On the end where you stopped threading you will have two loose wires. Bend one wire over onto itself, forming a loop. Take the end of that wire and wrap it around itself to close the loop. You might need pliers to finish this.

Take the other loose wire and wrap it around the base of the loop as well. Once it is pinched closed, the loop is finished.

I went back and twisted the loop on the other end tighter. I liked it better that way.

You can use whichever end you want to put the jump ring and clasp on. I picked the loop that I made second.

With the pliers, open the jump ring by holding onto one side of the jump ring and pushing the other side away from the pliers, twisting it open. Slide the lobster clasp on the open ring, then put the open ring through the loop as well.

Close the jump ring by following the steps to open the jump ring but in reverse, twisting the jump ring closed.

Now you have a clasp on the necklace.

Test the necklace length by putting it on. Mine was perfect (which surprised me because I have never done anything like this before), but if yours is too long or too short it can be adjusted.

If it is too long, try using a smaller jump ring and lobster claw. You can try to readjust your second loop to make it smaller as well.

If it is too small, add another jump ring (or as many as it takes).

Now the necklace is finished.

Like I said, I think this would go well with either casual attire or dressy. It is a very different necklace, and definitely not something you will see everywhere.

To make this necklace more your own, I have some suggestions:

-Use different colored denim (black, white, etc.)

-Dye the denim before making the necklace

-Use different colored wire (you can get aluminum in all sorts of cool, bright colors)

-Use a different gauge (how thick the wire is) of wire (I think it would look super cool with a heavier gauge, a.k.a thicker wire)

-Make more or less of the 'x' pattern, spacing them farther apart or closer together.

-Wrap smaller wires around the 'x's

I hope that you can style this necklace to suit your needs and style. I think it was fun and easy to make and it looks very unique.