Multicolor Kantha Bead Bib Necklace

• Hand-wound fabric beads
• Graduated double-strand layering
• Visible running stitches
• Mixed patchwork prints
• Adjustable extender chain
• Small fabric-bead charm at the extender end

Each bead is wound from a different scrap of vintage sari cloth, so the color and print mix on your necklace will be one-of-a-kind and won't exactly match the photo.

Kantha is a running-stitch technique from the Bengal region of eastern India and Bangladesh, developed as a way to give worn cotton and silk saris a second life. Layers of old cloth were stitched together with simple straight stitches to make quilts, wraps and household covers.

The beads here apply the same logic to jewelry. Strips of retired sari cotton are wound tightly around a lightweight core and closed with the same running stitch used in traditional kantha quilting, so the fabric holds its shape. The visible stitches on each bead are the technique itself, not a printed effect.

Because the fabric is reclaimed rather than woven to order, no two beads carry the same print, and no two necklaces come out identical. The mix of reds, teals, ochres, indigos and dusty pinks is simply whatever the sari scraps in that batch happened to be.

• Technique: Kantha textile upcycling

Spot clean gently with a dry cloth. Keep the textile beads away from water and perfume.