Fabric Covered Nursing Necklaces – no sewing machine required!

***UPDATE*** I have a newer blog post for no sew fabric nursing necklaces here.  Check it out if you don’t want to do any sewing!

Fabric covered nursing necklaces are a fun way to dress up your new mom attire.  I don’t know about you, but I had a hard time feeling pretty after I had Robert.  These types of necklaces made me feel good about myself and Robert had a ball playing with and chewing on them.  I posted a few months ago about making your own “chew beads” or nursing necklaces.  Some people also refer to them as teething necklaces.  Here is a pic from my first post.

I’ve loved wearing these so much that I ended up ordering colored silicone beads as well as braiding fabric rope together to make more necklaces.  At this point, I have so many different types of mom necklaces that I don’t even miss my real jewelry.  Of course, I’m sure I’m sending Baby Robert the wrong message.  He tries to chew on everyone’s necklaces now.  Don’t pick up my child if you don’t want your jewelry to end up with slobber all over it!

These fabric covered beads have been my favorite.  I am borrowing Irene’s sewing machine right now and was hoping to make a bunch of these.  Unfortunately, I am having trouble with the machine.  I’m 99% sure it is my fault and not the machine’s fault.  I was able to make the purple necklace quickly with the machine.  The camo necklace is another story.  I made this for one of Tom’s coworkers and the machine crapped out on me before I could finish.  I ended up having the stitch it very loosely by hand.  Why hadn’t I thought of that before?  Stitching it by hand wasn’t quick, but it was super easy.

I would love to include a tutorial here, but I just don’t like to measure.  I have no clue the length of my ribbon or the length of my fabric.  I got the wooden beads out and folded the fabric around the beads to see the width of the fabric and I cut from there.  I used double the amount of ribbon as I used fabric.  The fabric was sewn into an inside out tube.  I reversed the tube to be right side out and inserted the ribbon.  I tied a knot on one end of the necklace so that there was enough ribbon on one side to make a bow.  Then I threaded the beads down the ribbon and tied a knot between each one.  The hardest part was making sure the ends were knotted so the fabric looked nice and even instead of frayed.

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If I had known that I didn’t need a sewing machine for this, I would have been making these months ago.  While it was a little time intensive, it was well worth saving the money to make them myself.  These things retail for $20-40.

If you like real directions, check out this post from the Litty Bitty Kitchen.  She makes it look really complicated.  See, that is what measuring can do to you.  Don’t be afraid to do some trial and error with this one.  As long as it is safe for a baby to chew on, you are good to go.  The Litty Bitty Kitchen doesn’t use ribbon.  Personally, I like the beads threaded onto the ribbon so if the fabric does tear apart, you won’t have to worry about baby choking on a wooden bead.

Does anyone else have a measuring-phobia?  I don’t know why, but I can’t measure in cooking, baking, or sewing.  I’ve convinced myself that measuring takes the fun out of the artistic experience.  In reality, I’m way too lazy and impatient to mess around with measurements.