Choosing Jewelry That Flatters You

Can’t find the right necklace to go with your outfit? Here are some tips I’ve learned over the course of making jewelry and experimenting with clothing and various lengths of necklaces that I hope you'll find helpful.

I've also included some tips on earring lengths and sizes toward the bottom.

Some general tips on necklace lengths:

• Shorter Necklaces draw attention up to the face.

• Long necklaces that extend below bust line can be flattering to a lot of women: it lengthens and adds to the impression of height.

• However, if you are chesty, try to keep necklaces shorter so that they sit well above your bust line to keep the attention up at your face.

Necklace Length Types: What Necklines Look Best with your Necklace?

Princess Length Necklace (20")

Have you ever bought a really super cute necklace that you love, but can’t seem to find a top you own that goes best with it? Hopefully these little tips and drawings I made will help!   

GENERAL BASIC PRINCIPLE FOR NECKLACES 
24" OR LESS IN LENGTH:

 Match the shape of the necklace to the shape of the neckline you're wearing.  

Example: A V-neck with a simple curved or U-shaped necklace just doesn't look right. This is because the "V" (made by the shirt) and the "U" (made by the necklace) are basically sitting on top of or very near to one another. This takes away from both the beauty of the neckline and the beauty of the necklace.  

• V-necks look great with "Y" or "V" shaped pendant necklaces.

• Scoop necklines go great with U-shaped necklaces

• The exception...Square necklines. They don't really follow this general rule. They look great with both square-bottomed pendants and shorter, curved necklaces. Square pendants make a statement, and curved necklaces help to "soften" the angles created by the neckline.   

Y-Pendant Necklace 
 Great with v-necks

U-Shaped Necklace
Great with scoop 
or square neckline

V-Shaped Necklace
Great with v-necks

 

Square Pendant
Great with square necklines

 Necklace Lengths Visual:

Collar Necklace (12-13”, fits around middle of your neck):

Looks good with v-necks, rounded (“boat”), or shoulder baring necklines. 

V-Neck

Boat

Shoulder Baring

Choker Necklace (14-16”, above collar bone): 
Any style except turtlenecks

 

Princess Necklace (around 18-20”, below collar bone):
This is the most common necklace length. It looks good with a lot of different styles of necklines, so I will name some of my favorites: Crew or round (think t-shirt), other higher neckline styles like turtlenecks and boat cut, as well as plunging neck styles.

Boat

Crew/Round

 

Turtleneck

Plunging

Matinee Necklace (20-24”, top of bust):

This length compliments boat cut or scoop necklines best.

Scoop

Boat

Opera Necklace (28-34”) or Rope Necklace (45”+): 

This is a versatile necklace that you can wrap once or twice around your neck, or leave it at it's full length. This length of necklace looks good on almost all neckline cuts.  



Necklines that go great with most necklace lengths:

Sweetheart

Boat

Square

Necklines that look better without a necklace:

• Tops that are asymmetrical (off one shoulder): It really depends on the type of asymmetrical top, but many of them in my opinion just look awkward with a necklace on, and take away from the beauty of the top.  

• Halter tops that don’t leave much room around your neck and bust area for a necklace to fit or look flattering. (It becomes more of a "cluttered" look rather than simple and classy)

How to Choose the Right Earring Length: 

• Long earrings with short, chunky necklaces tend to give the appearance of a short neck, especially if you already have a shorter neck

Chunky Necklace

• If wearing a bigger, chunky necklace that lies at the collarbone, try wearing no earrings or wear earrings that are simple and shorter 

• Short earrings guide attention to your face (studs)

•  Long earrings look best on people with average to long necks 

•  Wide earrings (one half inch or wider) flatter most face shapes (wide or long, narrow faces)

3/4" Wide & 2.5" Long Earrings

•  Earrings that end level with your chin are flattering on most women       (2-2.5" long).

These are just suggestions based on what I have found to work best, but feel free to try different things to see what works best for you.  I love making custom pieces, so if you have something in mind, I would be more than happy to come up with a design for you!

Check out my Etsy store and Facebook Page for more info!

A Little More Like Home...

I absolutely love our house on base, but it still hasn’t felt like a home to me yet.

It is extremely important for me to feel comfortable and relaxed where I live, so that I can feel comfortable and relaxed outside my home. It also helps with my creativity and my ability to think creatively.  

With that said, it has been a priority to get these curtains done and put my jewelry making on the back burner for a (tiny) bit.

I wanted to make my own curtains because...
#1: I have a wonderful old Kenmore sewing machine that was handed down to me that I almost never use, 
#2: I’ve never made my own curtains, and 
#3: I wanted to improve my sewing skills.

Plus, thanks to my sewing expert neighbor friend, she directed me to fabric.com, where I found fabric I really liked at a great price.

I was able to take advantage of my husband being gone for a week on a TDY (military business trip) by hunkering down and focusing on sewing. It definitely kept me (and Sophia) busy and made the time he was gone go by much more quickly.  I should always do projects like this when he’s gone on his trips!

Sophia keeping track of my fabric cutting materials

For the curtain panels, I found an AWESOME tutorial online from House of Hepworths.

The only change I made was to use actual blackout lining material instead of a white twin flat sheet as shown in the tutorial, so I had to figure out the fabric requirements for the blackout material on my own. 

Measuring the blackout lining & comparing to curtain material

I did a LOT of measuring and ironing to make sure I sewed the seams straight

Pinning the blackout material to the curtains! Almost ready to sew...

My sewing machine did great after I gave it some oil and TLC!

Finished panel

For the valances, I used what I had learned from the panel tutorial and just made really short curtain panels without the lining. For the long windows in the kitchen and guest bedroom, I just made two valances and scrunched them together, which saved on the fabric yardage I had to buy.

Guest Bedroom

Office & Sophia's Kitten Tree Room

Laundry Room

Kitchen

Dining Area

The curtain for the front door window panel was a little bit more involved.  The hardest part was making sure the top and bottom rod pockets matched up with where I wanted the rods to go on the window, as well as making sure the pockets on top and bottom were exactly parallel to one another.

Now we just need a little more decoration to fill out our entry way!

I got lucky and found great curtain rods at Wal-Mart for a great price! I just love the “oil rubbed bronze” look.  My wonderful husband helped me install them, and from there I was finally able to hang those curtains up and finish the hems at the lengths I wanted them!

 

I really like how they turned out, and it definitely gives a more relaxed and cozy feel to the house.

Our Bedroom

Family Room

I am especially impressed with myself because I spent A LOT of time (hours and hours over several weeks) measuring and making Excel spreadsheets on the computer, listing all the curtains I wanted and how many total yards of material I would need; taking into account the seams, hems and curtain rod pockets that took away from the overall length and width of the material.

Numbers, measuring and planning ahead are definitely NOT one of my strengths, and it doesn't come easily to me like it does for other people (my husband!). I had to spend a lot of brain energy double checking myself so I didn't make mistakes, BUT I wanted to do this all myself for the first time because that’s how I learn and gain confidence in my abilities… and also learn to laugh at myself.

For example, I never realized how hard it is to cut a long piece of fabric in a straight line without a cutting mat. Good thing I learned from my dad to “measure twice and cut once”! However, with this experience, it was more like “measure 10 times and cut once”! I finally got to the point where I just said “okay, just cut it already and quit doubting yourself!”

By sewing the curtains and valances myself, I calculated that we saved over $200 compared to buying the same type of curtains and valances in a store. Plus, we get the added benefit of having curtains that no one else has, which I think makes all that effort worth it!