Breakfast at Tiffany’s Pearl Necklace

A few weeks back, my friend Emily was visiting Adele and I. All three of us love “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and we decided to get all dressed up in black and go eat + drink some pastries and coffee outside Tiffany’s on 5th Avenue where Holly Golightly would’ve stood.

Holly Golightly: You know those days when you get the mean reds?
Paul Varjak: The mean reds, you mean like the blues?
Holly Golightly: No. The blues are because you’re getting fat and maybe it’s been raining too long, you’re just sad that’s all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you’re afraid and you don’t know what you’re afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?
Paul Varjak: Sure.
Holly Golightly: Well, when I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany’s. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there. If I could find a real-life place that’d make me feel like Tiffany’s, then – then I’d buy some furniture and give the cat a name!

It was so fun to put on red lipstick, twist our hair up into French twists, hide behind our sunglasses, and act like total tourists for a moment. It was also the perfect time to wear the pearl collar necklace that I’d just finished.

When I was in high school, I loved pearl necklaces and I even wore them with t-shirts sometimes. As I’ve gotten older, I love a simple pearl necklace, but sometimes I feel like pearls are just too girly. The other day I got a wild hair and decided that I really wanted to work on a pearl necklace so I gathered some broken costume jewelry, my pearl beads and got stitching. I wanted this necklace to have a bit more earthy contrast so I made sure to use a darker nude leather as the base.

To make the necklace you need:
-Leather for the base (I once got a bunch of leather off Ebay after searching “Leather remnants”)
-Fabric for the tie
-A needle, thread, and thimble.
-Pearl beads, I used broken necklaces and some beads from this really cool “Class-in-a-Box” kit from Cousin.

When I started making the necklace, I took all of the big beads and stitched them in place in the center. Then I started filling the necklace in everywhere else.

And before I stitched the top pearls on the necklace, I stitched the fabric strips in place so that I can tie the necklace around my neck.

I tried to vary the arrangement of the different colors of pearls to give the necklace an antique vibe.

If you look closely, you can also see a few rogue clear beads thrown in the mix.

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon. 🙂