Tips for stretching your jewelry wardrobe

If you like to change your look often, the easiest and least expensive way is to put your existing jewelry with different outfits rather than buy new clothes or accessories.  Below are a few of the tricks I use to stretch my jewelry in different ways so it can be worn with multiple outfits.

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Make necklaces longer:

• Put matching bracelet and necklace that have same type of clasps together to make a longer necklace – if the clasps are decorative wear them in the front.
• Use a chain bracelet or anklet under your collar or turtleneck to make a necklace appear longer.
• Buy the desired length of extender chain from a craft store to add up to 4 inches to any necklace length.

Make necklaces shorter:

• Use a shortener clasp, hoop earring, safety pin, or large brooch to make necklaces shorter – the brooch can give it a fashionable look if you pin it in front.
• Twist multi-strand necklaces into a torsade – this makes it 1-2 inches shorter and the thicker necklace looks great inside the collar of a white blouse or an open neckline.

Turn necklaces into bracelets:

• Twist endless beads around wrist several times – to prevent the messy look of some longer and others shorter, use your other hand to pull all to the same size loop and then tie with a matching ribbon to keep it together at the desired length.
• If the necklace has a clasp, wrap it as well but use a bracelet buddy or a live friend to connect clasp at the desired size.
• You can use the pearl shortener to hold the wrapped beads and chains together, but it will not keep them at the same length like a tightly tied ribbon would. 

Turn bracelets into necklaces:

• If you like the look of a choker, you can make a new necklace by putting 2 bracelets with similar clasps together.  Put the plain bracelet in the back of neck and have the fancier one be the front.

Revive the necklaces you have:

• If you have pendants with larger bails or hinged enhancer-type bails, put them on different thicknesses or lengths of chain through smaller end of clasp – consider using multiple chains of same size and different gold colors for multi-tone look or small beads instead of  a single chains for a more up-to-date look.
• Create a funky new look by using a pin/brooch or clip-on earring as your pendant.  Stick the pin part or brooch through a link in a chain to keep it from moving or pin it between beads. If it is a heavy pin, consider getting a pin to pendant converter.   The clip on earring would go on beads between them much like a pearl enhancer is supposed to or on a neck wire. You can find many unique pins and earrings by shopping at thrift stores or asking grandma if you can borrow from her jewelry box.
• Layer several necklaces of same color, contrasting color, various types, or varying lengths together to get a new look.