Sixty years ago, women spent hours meticulously crafting yo-yo quilts. These were ordinary quilts painstakingly adorned with row after row of tiny, hand-sewn circular rosettes or “yo-yos”. While you may not have time to create an entire quilt’s worth of yo-yos, you can still enjoy the aesthetic with these handmade yo-yo necklaces from Quick Stuff to Sew, Vol. 2. Once you get into the swing of it, you’ll find that making yo-yos requires very little concentration and offers almost instant gratification. Who knows? You may end up with a quilt’s worth after all!

You probably already own all the materials necessary for creating the yo-yos themselves. They offer a great opportunity to use up any scrap fabrics you have lying around. Light to medium-weight fabric works best, but as far as texture and makeup, almost any kind of fabric will do. Use vintage fabrics and mix and match patterns and colors. Use a strong thread that can handle the gathering action that gives the yo-yo its unique shape. If this is one of your first jewelry projects, you can pick up a spool of chain and a small package of clasps and jump rings from a hobby store such as Michaels or Hobby Lobby instead of heading to a more expensive bead shop or ordering from a specialty Web site.