So. I felt that my first tutorial should be about something I thoroughly love. I decided on something steampunk-ish. I was introduced to steampunk about 3 years ago, and was in love with it ever sense. I find steam-powered machines and ladies and gents dressed in Victorian and Edwardian attire, strutting their stuff with handle-hidden pistol-umbrellas, ray guns, and pet octopuses. There is something so simple and clean, yet involved and down-and-dirty about this era-style, and its so full of variety that anyone can enjoy it.

Anyway, on to the crafts! 

I recently made a trip to Micheals and found several lovely metal pieces that are perfect for steampunk. (Sadly, I dont have a photo of all these pieces.) The watch faces I found were just begging to be made into beautiful pendents. I dug through my boxes of fabrics and turned up two lovely cotton blends, one brown, one pink, and a nice brown pleather. Lets get crafting!

Things you'll need:
Metal watch face (Micheals, 1 in wide)

Two contrasting fabrics (cotton or cotton blends work best.)

Fabric glue (white glue and hot glue works, but fabric is best.)

Felt 

Thread is similar or contrasting color

Sewing needle

Jump rings

jewelry pliers

Small gears, charms, or embellishments. (small buttons work too.)

Time to Prep!

First, get all your tools and lay them out on the table so you know where everything is. Set the needle, thread, scissors, glue, and pliers aside.

Place your metal watch face on your fabric and trace around it with a colored pencil on the WRONG side of the fabric. Draw a line around the line you just traced, but a couple millimeters away from the first line. Repeat with your felt. Cut out on the second (widest) line. 

On your second fabric, trace the watch face, then draw a second line on the INSIDE of the circle, just a few millimeters away. Cut out on the outside circle, then cut out the inside circle, leaving a ring of fabric.

You should have fabric pieces that look something like these.

Glue the wrong side of your fabric circle to the felt circle. Then glue the metal watch face to the right side of the fabric circle. (If using white glue, you may have to let the pieces dry in between each gluing.)

Once the watch face has set, apply a small amount of glue around the WRONG side of the fabric ring. Gently place the fabric ring onto the pendent, so that it covers the edge of the watch face, but so that it also sits on the fabric the watch face is set on.

Once the glue has dried, hand stitch around the edge of the inner ring of fabric in whatever design you'd like, in a contrasting thread. This gives it a 'held together' look. You could even do a blanket stitch around the edge of the outer circle, but I'm not sure how that would look.

Once all the glue is dry and everything stitched together, its time to embellish it!
Before you sew or glue anything on, lay your pieces together and stacked together to make sure its how you want it to look. Once you have a design you want, lace the thread through the hole in the middle of the watch face. (If you're using different watch faces then the ones I'm using that dont have a hole in the middle, you'll have to glue your embellishments on. Again, decide before you glue!) Lace the thread through your gear(s) or button(s) or bead(s), then back through the middle hole of your watch face. Pull the thread tight, tie a small knot and cut your thread. 

 

Now to add the jump rings! Use your pliers to open the jump ring, then carefully and gently push it through the felt and fabric of the base of your pendent. 

Once the jump ring is through, close the jump ring, slide onto a necklace chain, and proudly show it off!

Congrats! You have a new, fashionable, all-you steampunk pendent! Wear it with beautiful, steampunk pride!