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

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