DIY Scarf Necklace Tutorial and GIVEAWAY!

How many of you have seen the scarf necklaces floating around pinterest? I for one, have been obsessing over them for a few weeks. When I saw Michael's had tshirts on sale this week, I decided it was time to bite the bullet (they're 2/$5.00 until Saturday at close). I bought 2 tshirts, and ran home to attempt my first one. In hind sight, 2 tshirts makes it a lot fuller looking, so my first one is a little bit different. First one down, I decided that I should make a hot pink one for Addaline to wear for family photos, since I was struggling with what she was going to wear on her top half... enter another trip to Michael's for more shirts. Made the hot pink one last night, and decided this morning that I wanted to make my teal one as well. It's a sickness folks. 

After I posted a pic on twitter last night... I got a reply from you lovely ladies that you all love them. So was born the idea of the tutorial and giveaway. I *may* have even gotten a few threatening tweets about rigging the giveaway, but I won't mention any names (Chelsea, Mateya, Lindsey and Holly, cough cough) :) 

On to the tutorial... Be patient with me, since I'm not a professional, and might have missed a step. If you are confused by any of these steps, visit THIS tutorial as well if you need. I used part of this for making mine. 

*Start with 2 size LARGE tshirts, any color will do. 

*Cut off the bottom hem of shirt (save hem for wrapping later), then cut (until you reach the armpits) into 1 to 1 1/2 inch strips. You don't have to measure, just guess, and cut. 

*When you're done cutting, you should have a nice pile of tshirt strips, like so.

*Next... pull strips as far as they will stretch... like this (I just put them over my thumbs, and pulled until I couldn't pull anymore). 

*There is no exact science to it, just stretch them until you can't pull anymore, and they don't all have to be the same length, just as close as you can. 

*The braids: Take as many strands as you want for the braids. Today I used 9 strands for one braid, and 6 for the other. Last night I made a wider braid, and used 12 strands. Gather the strands together, and cut one end, so now you'll have LONG strands (double the length of your loops basically since you're cutting them). Divide by how many strands you have, if you grabbed 9 strands, you'll use 3 for each part of the braid. I hope this makes sense. Tie off one end with thread. I imagine you could even use floss if you don't have any thread. You just need it to keep the braid together, like so...

*Braid all the way down until you get to the end, and tie off again with more thread, just like the top. If you don't want any braids in your scarf, then you can skip these steps. Make as many braids as you want! I made 2 for each of mine I believe. 

*Next step- gather up all your loops like this (just set the braids off to the side for now)

*Bring both sides together. Feel free to twist them as you're bringing them together, or just simply bring them together if you don't want a twist look. Use your hem line (just cut it so it's not a loop anymore, but now a long strand) to tie a knot so the 2 ends are tied together. Like this

No they're not 2 separate circles like it looks in this pic, I have the necklace wrapped around my knee while tying this, and while tying the braids on as well. 

*Tying in the braids: Simply measure how long you want the braids to be, I make one longer and one a little shorter. Lay their ends over the knot that you created when you tied the 2 ends together. 

Then wrap the rest of your hem strand around the braids and necklace loops, creating a wrap for the back of the neck basically. You may have to trim the braids if they're too long, simply cut the ends off once you've got the wrap stabilized, and continue covering ends with hem wrap. The finished product will look like the above photo. 

And there you have it ladies. I probably missed something, and some of this might not make sense to you now, but it will when you start making it. I linked to another tutorial if you need extra help, if any of my directions are not clear enough. 

Here is the finished tshirt scarf necklace, being modeled by moi, sans makeup and clean hair...

Now for the giveaway part.... Who wants to win one of these? Since I haven't done any fun giveaways in a while, and because I love you gals, I'm going to give one of these away. All you have to do is....Leave one comment for each: 

1} Be a follower of my blog, pretty easy right?!

2} Tell me what a few of your favorite colors are? So I can attempt to make your scarf necklace in said color (pending Michaels has the color). Colors I can remember off the top of my head that they have are: red, blue, black, white, orange, green (lime), yellow, brown, hot pink.  

Pretty easy ladies!!! I'll close the giveaway Sunday evening at 6pm. GOOD LUCK :)