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Thursday, October 4, 2012

Skully Necklace

I love October!  I love Halloween!  I love scary movies, carving pumpkins and homemade costumes!  I love fun decorations and I love dressing up all month long in not-quite-costumes that I can pretend are my normal clothes...


My Skully Necklace is inspired by Mexican sugar skulls, since Dia de los Muertos kinda jumbles in and becomes a part of the Halloween festivities in my neck of the woods.  I like the message behind the holiday, since having a family memorial day gives us a chance to talk to Mims about our family members who have passed on.  And, I just really dig the Mexican Folk Art style...

The supplies are really simple, just some embroidery floss, a hook, a needle and a plain chain.  You could probably whip out 3 or more of these in an evening!  Hmm, sounds like a grown-up Halloween treat...

Skully Necklace
Finished Pendant: 3/4" across at widest point, 1" from the top of the head to the teeth
Supplies:
Embroidery floss (White for skull, bright colors that make you happy for the embroidered decoration)
Size D hook
Sharp tapestry needle
Plain chain necklace (I used an 18" chain, you can use whatever length chain is most flattering to you)
Scissors
Tiny amount of fiberfil (optional!)


Tiny Skull Pattern
(make 2)
R1: Using white embroidery floss (6 strands), make 8 hdc in a magic loop, pull loop tight and sl st to first hdc to close round (8 st)
R2: ch 1, 2 hdc in each st around, sl st to first hdc to close round (16 st)
R3: ch 1, 3 hdc (3 st)
Fasten off.  Weave in ends (or don't and just tuck them inside the pendant later, if you want...)

Grab one of your tiny sculls and your brightly colored embroidery floss!


I like to layer the colors as I embroider the faces.  I started with red (TOO SCARY on its own!), and then added the other colors over the top.  **It might be helpful to add that I only used 3 strands of floss when I embroidered the faces, to keep the lines from being too thick.  Feel free to experiment with floss thickness to change the look of the pendant.**
Since this a folk art style project, realism is unnecessary.  An abstract 'skull-feeling' is what we're going for, and once you get all the colors on, it will become more defined and it will look amazing.  Besides, this is a really tiny piece of art, you can't get too realistic with it.

Here is what I did, if you want a guide to get you started:


It wouldn't be a Halloween project if it didn't include a little gore... :P


It wasn't fatal.  Moving on.

Grab the 2nd skull piece (which will now be called 'the back') and your white embroidery floss.


Stitch the 2 skull pieces together, wrong sides facing to the center.  Start about half way down the head part of the skull and whipstitch down the side, across the bottom, and back up the other side. Use the picture below as a guideline for where to start and stop your stitches...


Open the top part up a little, so that you can slide your chain inside it!


Just lay the chain across the open top of the skull, it should appear to be entering and leaving the skull at pretty much the same place on each side of the skull head.  Make sure that the long sides of the chain are centered before you go on to the next step (you know, 'cause it will make your necklace off centered and wonky if you don't...).


It's time to whipstitch the top of the skull together. The chain will now be sticking out of either side of the head, and the skull will be slightly puffed.  If you would like a more pronounced puffiness to your skull, add some fiberfill before you stitch the top of the skull closed.  I didn't add any extra fiberfill in mine because I wanted the back to lie flat against my skin...


You can use other color combinations!  You can wear them all month!  They go with every outfit you own, because it's October and spooky fun is the height of fashion!  Have I mentioned how much I love October??!!!


xoxo

Now, a quick word from today's free-pattern SPONSOR:

Hi Dynamos!  I've put out an ebook of 6 of my fanciest-schmanciest (wearable) patterns from this site!  It's in the Kindle store right now!  It's called Crochet Dynamite: Fancy-Schmancy.  If you have an e-reader, iPad, Smart Phone or other tech-y awesomeness (including Kindle on your laptop/PC) please click HERE to go and check it out.

 

23 comments:

  1. These are awesome and they totally have the Dia de Los Muertos vibe going on! I love how you did the eyes! Such a great and not TOO spooky idea!

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    Replies
    1. How funny! You were here and I was over the Mad Crochet Lab looking at Bomb Dog! LOL!!!
      xo

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  2. STOP! Just stop. There are not enough hours in the day for me to keep up with all the awesomeness that keeps coming out of here! I ♥LOVE♥ these! but I don't know if I will have a chance to get to them until maybe NEXT Halloween.... ;P Oh well, the great thing about October and Halloween (I ♥ them so much too!) is that they come back EVERY YEAR! Yay! So..... maybe someday.
    xo!
    ♥ETF♥

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  3. oops, in all my excitement, I forgot to ask: where do you get your chain? Michaels? Joann? Is it nickel-free or silver or something? any particular brand you like? Is it already in necklace-lengths or do you cut it and add end-bits? And the embroidery floss that you embroidered on for the face designs, are you using the full amount of strands or did you separate them at all? (I guess you would have mentioned that if you had)
    :)
    xo!

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    Replies
    1. I picked up my 18" chains already as necklaces in a 3-pack at Michaels for $3.99, and it is just a cheap necklace with a cheap clasp. I'm not worried about it lasting forever, since I like new, new, NEW! all the time.

      I really debated about how much detail to add about the embroidery part, since I really wanted to foster an arty-experimental vibe with this project. But I think that it would be super helpful to know that I used 3 strands of floss for all of the face embroidery, and that I used all 6 strands for the crocheting of the skull. LOL!!!
      xo ♥ETF♥

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  4. These are way too cute, and who would have thought that skulls could ever be cute? lol, Amazing Jaime.

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  5. I love these!! And I just happen to have a bunch of embroidery thread laying around :) You are SO creative!

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  6. You've been hanging out with The Crafty Chica, haven't you?

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    1. I wish. But then I would have had to dip it in glitter! LOL!!! xo me

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    2. So true! She is certainly the queen of glittery goodness. Sweet lady, too, like you. I love it when the good guys (gals/dogs/mythological beasts/economists) enjoy success!

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    3. Ooh, she is crazy-awesome Craft Goddess successful!! I dream of that kind of success someday, but with fewer glittered chihuahua banks... But I would like my own line of Loteria cards too, if only to give hers a run for their money. ;D
      xo J

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  7. Ummm, since I'm not the crochet-y type, could I buy one of your skull necklaces?

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    Replies
    1. Absolutely! I'll put a couple up in the Dynamo Shop tomorrow.
      xo Jaime

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    2. Heh, I was tired last night. I've put 2 skully necklaces in the shop. You can click on the DYNAMITE SAMPLE SHOP button on the right to view them!
      Thanks so much for asking!
      xo Jaime

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  8. I once made. a day of the dead Halloween face mask for my youngest when she was 3. Psiered with a white turtleneck white leggings then drew little day of the masks all over them. Big hit.

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    Replies
    1. That sounds awesome, Danielle! What a fun costume idea. Too cute!
      xo Jaime

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  9. My friend is a Spanish teacher and she is OBSESSED with Dia de los Muertos. I'm really excited to make a pair of earrings for her using this pattern. Thank you!

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