Leather Feather Lariat Necklace

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I am always on the lookout for interesting jewelry, and this Feather Lariat is just that!

I found this feather necklace on the Free People Retail site and really liked the idea of the painted leather. Unfortunately, if you want to buy their necklace you are going to shell out a whopping $98.

Well, I liked the idea of the necklace, but I wasn’t crazy about the bright paint on the feathers. I don’t know about you, but I’m not about to spend that much on something that wasn’t really to my liking. So, I made a super easy toned down version. It only cost me a mere $12 and I have enough leather and string left over to make two more!

The necklace sold online also has two feathers glued together, mine has only one. I found using only one leather feather makes it hang lighter and looser, more like a real feather. Plus adding two made the leather too thick for my liking. So if you want you can glue two of the feathers together and paint both sides if you like. Here’s how I made my Free People Hack~

Leather Feather Lariat Necklace

Supplies:

• Silver Creek Leather Brown
• Suede Lace in Cafe Brown
• Bead Bell Cap Gold or a bead with large enough hole that leather will fit through
• Acrylic paint, white black, bronze, gold, dark brown, light brown
• E6000 Craft Adhesive
• Paint brushes
• Sharp scissors
• Rotary cutter & mat

Instructions:

I have provided a printable guide to use to cut your feathers out on the leather! Just click the link and download the PDF. Open and print out the guide.

Leather Feather Cutting Guide PDF

Cut out the size feather you want to use and lay it on top of the leather. Cut out around the guide with sharp scissors.

Paint stripes and dots on the feathers. I chose to do mine a little less bright than the Free people version.  To me, the feathers look better when they are painted more subtle.

The easiest way I found to cut the tiny slits in the feather and to be able to get them really close together is with a rotary cutter. Of course, if you do not have one sharp scissors will work as well.  Cut slits on both side of the feather, do not go all the way through. Pull and stretch the leather to loosen it up.

Measure your suede cording to hang, mine is 44 inches long. Fold the cording in half and feed the folded end through a bead with a large hole or in my case I used a gold bead cap.

Add the E6000 adhesive to the center top half of the back of the feathers and press the cording onto it. Let it dry for 24 hours and then tie a simple knot in the cording above each feather. And that’s it! Super easy and who doesn’t love saving $86!!!

LOVE IT? PIN IT!

Check out more of my Jewelry Projects~

Bar & Jump Ring Tassel Necklaces

Jewelry Project Gallery