diy jcrew flower lattice necklace

Recently I came across the most lovely necklace from J.Crew

Photo Credit: [J.Crew]

It is seriously gorgeous and I knew that I needed to have it. But beauty doesn't come cheap, this baby will cost you $228. So I tried to forget about it and move on to my next covet-worthy item. But I couldn't, it was haunting my dreams (yes I sometimes dream about clothing, shoes, jewelry, etc. haha) So I thought, it's nothing more than some pretty brooches strung together on a necklace right? And I set out to make my very first homemade piece of jewelry.

I first ordered some different rhinestone brooches and buttons from Etsy. I found this set of J.Crew-esque buttons for relatively cheap: 

Rhinestone Buttons (here)

I also got a few larger brooches to complete the look. This Etsy shop is actually perfect for finding brooches. You can also find them in other Etsy shops or on Ebay. After I got my brooches/buttons I just went to Michaels and got a necklace chain and some jewelry wire. You could also use just a jewelry chain and get a lobster clasp but I was too lazy so I just got this 18 inch necklace chain that already had a clasp. These were all my supplies:

Total cost of this project: Less than $30

After that I basically arranged my brooches into the design I wanted and started stringing them together with the jewelry wire. I started with the the largest brooch and attached it to the chain. Then i used the jewelry wire to attach the adjacent brooches. It took a LOT of trial and error until I felt like I got it right. So don't be afraid to undo all the work you just did and start over. 

This was my rough draft:

This is the finished product after a few tweaks! I'd say I got it pretty close to the actual thing! 

The chain is different of course but you don't really see it when you're wearing it! See:

Anywho, I was pretty proud of myself for this one! High fives for DIY projects!

Xxxxooo