Part II - I Don't Wear Brooches! A Series on Ways to Repurpose Vintage Brooches

Yesterday I started the series on fun, simple, yet creative ways to incorporate vintage brooches into almost any style. Today will build on yesterday's theme of turning a vintage brooch into a necklace.

So you don't have a necklace that works with the brooch you like, or you can't find a suitable chain - the next step is a ribbon! Making a ribbon necklace is easy, inexpensive and fun. All you need is scissors, ribbon of your choosing and a brooch or brooches and about five minutes.


Vintage Brooch as a Ribbon Necklace

Step One - Select the appropriate ribbon. A thin ribbon will work well for a light weight brooch and is best to use for a single brooch necklace. A medium grade ribbon is perfect for a heavier brooch or multiple brooches. A thick, wide ribbon is perfect for creating a faux bib necklace. The best thing about ribbons - with so many colors, patterns and textures at affordable prices it's easy to keep lots of it on hand!

Step Two - Figure out the length of the necklace you want to wear, such as, a choker, mid-length or navel length. Be sure to include enough ribbon for you to tie the necklace to the length you want it to hang.

Step Three - Apply brooches! I prefer to actually put my brooch through the fabric of ribbon so it stays in the location I place it, but you may want it to be free moving. Or if you'd rather not damage the ribbon you can tie knots on either side of the brooch to hold it in place, which also adds some fun design aspects to the necklace as well.

For the bib necklace I recommend using the wide ribbon, placing the brooches in the pattern you'd like and then tying knots at either end of the bib to give it definition and to make the ribbon more manageable to tie at the back.

Here are some examples of ribbon necklaces:





Multiple Brooches



Mid-sized ribbon


So the next time you see a vintage brooch, don't hesitate - you can really wear it!

Stay tuned for the next idea!

Disclaimer:
For all of the ideas I'm presenting in this series my intention is to leave the brooches whole, and reusable, but if the creative bug hits you don't hesitate to make permanent pieces!