OOTD: "The Frida" + DIY Bulky Bead Necklace With Adjustable Cord

Over at Closet Play Image, Liz has been working her way through a book with 50 ways to wear scarves. In her most recent post featuring styles 21-30, she was unable to attempt "The Frida" (based on Frida Kahlo) because it requires long hair. Though I am not the most skilled at hair styling (to put it mildly), I am capable of making two side braids, so I gave it a shot. I followed the steps until Step 5, in which we were instructed to tie the ends of the scarf and fluff them to give the impression of a flower...to look something like her self portrait The Frame, I think. Because of my hair's length, when I tried that, the ends of the braids went super wonky and stuck out from my head oddly on both sides! So I crossed the ends of the scarf and tucked them in, more reminiscent of Frida's style in Self Portrait With Monkey, 1940.

The result is less Frida Kahlo and more "Dutch Peasant on Her Wedding Day." I was impressed that my braids stayed in place all day long! I worked from home with no video meetings, so I didn't have to explain this hair to anyone but my husband Robot.

The other bit of novelty in my look this day was a newly created DIY bulky bead necklace on a cord with an adjustable sliding knot. When I got these large beads in my last Boss' Bead Bag from Fire Mountain Gems, I knew I wanted to create a cord necklace with them. When working with random beads, it's not always easy to put a design together (at least for a novice like me), but I played around with them on my bead board until I had a set of beads that were somewhat symmetrical in size and color. (There are enough beads left over that I will be able to make a second necklace with olive/taupe/tan colors.)

I used this tutorial with a terrific set of step by step photos to create the sliding knot. The first one was easy, but I had a bit of trouble with the second one because I had to mentally flip the images, and I think I ended up inserting the cord the wrong direction on the last step. But it did make a functional sliding knot!

Here's the final product, which came together quite quickly despite my inexperience with the knot. I am satisfied with the bead portion, which has colors that will match/blend or stand out in a good way with a lot of things in my wardrobe. But I do think it might look better on a heavier cord. This one looks a bit delicate given the heft of the beads, but a 1mm waxed cotton cord was all I had. (I don't think there's any issue with the cord functionally, so it's definitely wearable now.) Given how easy this necklace is to make, I might purchase some heavier cord and switch it out at some point. We'll see how I feel about it after wearing it more times. I went back and forth about using this light colored oatmeal/cream cord versus a darker grey cord, but neither choice is perfect...I would want a dark cord on a dark top and a light cord on a light top, and I will wear this necklace with both kinds of top. So I went with the lighter color that will blend in more with my skin above the neck line.

I made it just in time to wear it with this navy and olive outfit in a layered necklace. The adjustable sliding knot proved its worth on day 1 because I was able to lengthen the necklace to sit underneath the other two necklaces. I could have put it between the two, but I wanted to make sure that the entire necklace showed on its first wear.

OOTD 12/1/21

Have you tried wearing a scarf in your hair?

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