Revamping the classic pearl necklace

I was cleaning out my jewelry box the other day, and came across a long-strand pearl necklace I had bought when I was in New York a few years ago. I hadn't worn them for awhile, so I just threw them to the side thinking "maybe I will wear these with something, someday". Then a few days later, I had an idea of what I could do to make them more wearable, and fashionable. Pearls will always be a classic, but sometimes it's just hard to wear them unless you are dressing up to go somewhere nice. This tutorial shows you how to "dress-down" a strand of pearls for everyday wear.


Supplies:
Long strand pearl necklace (mine was about 25'', from the back of my neck to the bottom of
      the strand)
2 different colored thin ribbon (I used 1/8'' ribbon in brown and ivory)
A lighter (or matches)


First, you want to cut your ribbon. Decide how long you want your necklace; I wanted mine a bit longer, so I cut about 32" long strips. Since you only have two different colored ribbons, you will obviously need to cut two of one color, and one of the other. This will be for the first braid.

Now, put the three strands together, and using the lighter, burn and melt the edges to form a faux knot. This will just keep the strands together for braiding. Then, just start to braid the pieces together. I just did a loose braid, and made it almost look a bit messy (doing this made it look more unique). Once the braid is finished, burn the edges like you did at the beginning of the braid. 

Repeat the previous two steps, and make one more braid. With the first braid, I used two ivories and one brown, with the second braid, I used two browns and one ivory. You can use which ever colors you want, but by doing what I did, it balanced everything out so there wasn't too much of one color.

Now that the braids are done, you can work on attaching them to the pearl necklace. Hold the necklace, and loop it around so that you have two strands of the necklace in each hand. Now take one of the braids and loop around and tie a knot around both strands, leaving just a little loop (so it's not completely tight against the pearls) on the ribbon on one side. After the knot is tied, cut off the little bit the is hanging off the end, and burn the edge so that it is secured even more. Repeat on the next side.

After that braid is secure, loop around and knot the next braid on the loop that was left by the last braid, burning the edges again. Repeat on the other side. 

And your done! Simple right? And the results are beautiful!