How to Crochet a Button Necklace - 45 Minutes DIY

You have time to kill on your way home for christmas? On the plane, on the train, in the bus...
This is the perfect little project for you then. Crocheting a button necklace is really easy and once you have a little practice it can be done really fast, too. You only need a handful of materials and can work on it practically anywhere. I have found it to be a great icebreaker too. You will be chatting away with your travelling companions in no time.
If you should want to avoid that wear headphones.

- a very small crochet hook (0.75-1.5 mm)
- sewing thread a little thicker than regular
- a hand full of buttons
Important: make sure the crochet hook fits through the button holes!

Also you should know how to crochet. You can find a really good instructable on how to crochet here:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Beginning-crochet/

Start with a slipknot. In the photo you see me using embroidery thread. However, after the first couple of chain stiches and buttons I thought the result to be too stiff, so I used sewing thread instead.
Once you have created your slipknot make a couple of chainstiches. The number really depends on how close to each other you want the buttons to be. I normally do between 8 and 12 chainstiches. In this necklace I crocheted 12 chainstiches between the buttons.

After completing the first dozen chainstiches you crochet THROUGH the button. This is how: widen the last chainstich so that it is roughly the lenghth from the edge of the button to the first hole. Put your crochet hook through and pull the thread through to create a new chainstich. Repeat with the second hole. If you use buttons with 4 holes you want to use the diagonal holes. Make another chainstich to the other outer edge of the button and start your new chain of chainstches.

The rest is just the same over and over again. You decide how long you want the necklace to be. I like to make mine a bit longer so that I can wear it doubly around my neck. The necklace you see in the photo took me about an hour to make, including taking all the photos.
There are several ways to close and finish the necklace. I usually combine the fist chain with the last by crocheting through it. Instead of making a doubleknot stand out like I did, you could fasten the thread endings and cut the leftover thread really short, this would create a necklace without beginning or ending.
You can vary in any way. Use your favourite colors or customize it for your loved ones.
Merry Christmas to all of you!