Lo and behold the choker, which Taylor Swift deemed the new flower crowns at Coachella festival. Funny how a bit of black ribbon can seriously fashion-up you’re last minute thrown-together outfit and up your chic by 100%. If you’ve been Insta-stalking the cool crowd and envy their neck jewellery, but are a lazy DIY-er, this simple do it yourself has you sorted.
DIY Choker 1
So lazy you could do it in your sleep: tie back choker necklace
This is so easy, and totally do-able when hungover (tried and tested fact). We ordered this 22mm velvet ribbon from eBay, for extra choker necklace oo la-la. 1 metre was enough for three chokers.
Measuring the diameter of our necks (there’s a sentence we never thought we’d say?!) with a tape measure, we cut the length of ribbon we’d need, plus about 2 inches extra for tieing.*
*If you don’t have a tape measure, tie a piece of ribbon you’d use for wrapping pressies, or some string if you have it, around your neck and mark how much you’ll need, before cutting your ribbon. (DIY hack much?)
This is where it gets technical guys….tie the ribbon in a cute bow at the back of your neck and…. that’s that!
DIY Choker 2
Just plain lazy: choker with clasp
If you wanted to, you could repeat the above, but add an easy clasp and chain to make your necklace that little bit more secure (you wouldn't need to add the extra two inches for tying this time).
We actually had a chain from a broken necklace (a tip for budding DIYers, never throw anything out, become a DIY hoarder, you never know when things come in handy), but you can order these cheaply on eBay.
Flip your ribbon over and place the clasp at one end and the chain at the other.
With a black thread, secure by sewing through the ring hoops, until the chain and clasp are fixed firmly. We had some excess chain left we didn’t need, so cut this off with scissors.
Voila! You have a swanky new necklace made by yours truly.
DIY Choker 3
A tiny bit of effort: choker with clasp and charm
Oohh you’ve gone the whole hog, I like it! Well done you.
Repeat the above steps, adding a clasp to your chocker, before choosing a charm of your choice. You can find loads of great ones (shark tooth, feathers, agate style stones etc) on eBay.
We chose a flat agate style stone for our necklace. Most charms will have a metal loop at the top, we measured to the middle of our chocker and with a black thread, sewed our charm to our ribbon.
Charms really set of the choker necklaces, and give a cool 90s vibe. We say make a few, layer them up and do the hippy hippy shake.
Like this? You might also be interested in:
How To Make Those Lace Up Sandals You're Craving, In 4 Simple Steps
Follow Jenny on Twitter @JennyBrowlees
Photographs by Jenny Browless
Model: Elle Burnett at Savalas Models
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.