Learn different embroidery stitches to fix beads on to fabric and leather to do bead embroidery.
Introduction to bead embroidery
Beads are a really fun way to add some interest to boring clothes, or to cover up a stain.
How to get started:
Sew Guide's introduction to bead embroidery shows twelve basic stitches to get you started. They also have an article with ten easy flower bead designs and nine beaded borders, and an article with nine different beading styles.
The Spruce Crafts also has a guide to bead embroidery materials.
Much like embroidery, beaded pieces need extra care when washed.
Make your beading more sustainable by reusing beads from old or thrifted jewellery, or by getting your beads through thrifting or freecycling platforms.
Some ideas:
Beading can be used to make a picture come to life. It's a nice way to decorate fabric or to make an art piece for your wall.
It can also be used to spruce up clothes you haven't worn in a while, like this sweater and pair of jeans.
(Image source) [ID: close-up on the shoulder of a gray knit sweater embellished with beads and rhinestones.]
(Image source) [ID: close-up on the edge of a pocket of a light blue pair of jeans. The edge has been embellished with white and silver beads and pearls.]
Beads can also be used in visible mending to decorate a mend you've made.
(Image source) [ID: close-up of a hole in the knee of a pair of blue jeans. The rip has been patched with a black piece of fabric. Black beads have been sewn in and around the patch.]
Aside from mends, they're also great to cover up stains with.
(Image source) [ID: close-up on a red knit sweater. An abstract patch of red, blue, and gold beads covers up a stain in the fabric.]
You can combine beads with different sewing techniques, such as embroidery for example, to achieve different effects.
(Image source) [ID: an embroidered moon and stars in gold thread on a black fabric. Sequins have been sewn among them to add shine to the embroidery. A metal hoop with two birds lies in front of the embroidered piece.]
Conclusion:
Bead embroidery is a technique that can be used in a wide variety of ways to embellish your clothes, to hide mends, and to cover up stains. Experiment and have fun with it!
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Oh hey, do you know what time it is? It is highly specific resource time!
Today we have the Royal School of Needlework Stitch Bank! There are HUNDREDS of stitch types in the RSN Stitch Bank.
And more added regularly, letβs look at a recent addition
I picked the first one in the 25 recently added Elizabethan stitches, the Elizabethan French Stitch
The stitch bank provides written and photo tutorials as well as a video option to learn to do it yourself. There are examples of the stitch in use, resources, references, everything but a needle and thread!
I looked at some of the tutorials last night and holy shit I'm so impressed! They're SO thorough!
Not only do they have written and video instructions, but there are photo and illustration options for each image AND a "flip view" button so that left handed people can see all the images in reverse!
I am going to jump in and add, as you said they are very detailed in their directions, something that takes a lot of time and money.
If anyone who has enjoyed this resource has the means, I encourage you to adopt or sponsor a stitch to help keep this free to access. I know not everyone has the means to (fair, been there) but if you can, check out their sponsor options
RSN Stitch Bank Progress
And one other resource I have shared before, The Lady's Magazine. Embroidery patterns from 1770-1819. In case anyone wants some historic ideas for using all these new embroidery stitches
Actually, ancient glass, having been rather neglected by archaeology for decades, is a pretty exciting topic in scholarship right now. The main thing is that glass persistsβitβs very stable. After fabric rots and metal turns to a scrap of rust, there will lie a necklace, still scattered across a chest that itself has turned mostly to earth.Β
Bead typologies, for example (that is, the classification of different styles/shapes/decorative motifs/colors) can allow scholars to trace trade routes, as they study the distributions of different bead types over time and geography. Glass production is kinda industrial in nature, not like spinning or beer that make good cottage industries. It was often produced in one place, and then sold on to artisans elsewhere, and then the beads themselves were traded across entire continents.Β
Chemical analysis of the glass can do even more to trace routes, since different compositions and incidence of different mineral contaminants can allow archaeologists to trace glass production to individual sites, thousands of years after the fact. Itβs dizzying, really.
The downside is that for a long time, archaeologists regarded beads as unimportant trinkets, and antiquities dealers understood that they were easy to take and easy to move. So an awful lot of the most exceptional beads we have from the distant past spent time in private collections or uncategorized drawers somewhere in a museum back room, so theyβve lost much of what we could have learned from their original provenance. Maybe weβll be able to turn new analytical tools on some of these to reconstruct more of their past.
I like thinking about beautiful glass beads traveling around. I donβt know why, but they feel more βaliveβ to me when compared to spices, silkβ¦. And I keep imagining they look like Murano glass.
@danica-snapdragonβ They look like this:
(Ancient Ireland)
And this:Β
(Frankish pre-Germany)
(Phoenicia)
(Warring States era China)
(Viking age Sweden)
(Ancient Egypt)
And they traveled through generations, through continents, through cultures. From Rome to Scandinavia. From Saxony to China. They decorated emperors and sorceresses and little girls with little graves. And they are FULL of all those lives.
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How to Create an 11th century Andalusian Tunic with Double Lapel Collar
In this post, I will be describing how to construct the stacked double lapel collar found on tunics from Al-Andalus. I will not be talking in-depth about how to construct the body, nor about acceptable materials to make your own tunic. The body is based off of Kvetun's reconstruction of an Egyptian tunic found in Naqlun cemetery dating to the same era. I have erased 2-4 of the seams from the original example done by Kvetun for my pattern, in the assumption that they are piecing seams as whole panels were preferred for this project. The fabrics I have chosen for my tunic are an unbleached pants weight linen, a dusty rose shirt weight linen, and the contrasting collar fabric is a reproduction silk from Kazar Bazar.
In it's simplicity, I believe that the double lapel collar application is a flap of contrasting fabric stitched over a side slit keyhole neckline.
I am unsure if the double lapel collar had both lapels with silk/contrasting fabric, or if only the top one was silk. These instructions assumes both lapels are made of silk, as well as the tunic itself to be fully lined.
In-depth instructions below
I highly suggest to do the collar work by hand. I have not tested this method by machine, and therefore do not know how this will behave under the static arm of a sewing machine. If someone is interested in trying this by machine, let me know how it pans out.
Start with your body fabric and lining lined up but flat. The collar work will be extremely hard to do once you add the sleeves/gores. The lining method I used is not historical, and I believe it falls under bag lining. Both the lining and the 'shell' were constructed separately, creating two whole garments, then the lining was slid in to the shell. The unfinished seams facing each other. I chose this, as it will also hide all the stitching from creating this neckline, but also was more convenient for a commissioning process as I struggle to finish gore/gusset seams on my sewing machine.
With your body and lining fabric pieces lined up, snip in the neck hole at centre of the body and the shoulder line/seam. The neck hole should be set 1/3rd above the shoulder line as the body fabric with 1/3rd of the neck hole overhanging will be the 'back' of this garment, and the part with the other 2/3rds will be the 'front'.
On the front side, from the centre of the neck hole circle (not the shoulder line), mark a line 30+ cm down. 30cm is the minimum. But whatever this measurement is for you, be sure to maintain this number through the project. Cut along the marked line to create the keyhole/ 'P' shaped slit.
Next, remove the lining fabric from the body entirely. The majority of this collar application will be done on the shell/fashion fabric.
Starting with the 'under' lapel first, this specific set of instructions is only relevant if you plan on having both lapels be silk and want to reduce the bulk from the layers contrasting fabric, outer fabric, and lining fabric. If you would like an easier version of this step, or if you do not care about having bulk, you can applique the contrasting fabric over the top of the body fabric with similar dimensions to the layover flap.
The dimension calculation for the body fabric to be cut away is:
[Neck slit length] - seam allowance = length
[Neck diameter] - seam allowance = width
For example, the neck diameter I used is 13cm, and the neck slit is 30cm. I use 1cm seam allowances when hand sewing. So the rectangle I cut out is 12cm by 29cm.
Cut out your rectangle under the neck hole but from the side with the most fabric opposite from the neck slit. Next, you will do the opposite calculation to create the replacement part of the fabric.
With the same information from above, the insert rectangle I made is 14cm by 31cm.
Press in 1cm, 'wrong side to wrong side', on the base of the narrow edge of your rectangle. Then line your contrasting fabric rectangle 'right side to right' side along the long edge of the body fabric that isn't the main keyhole slit. Stitch the inserted rectangle down. Fold the rectangle over to fill the space you just removed. Press the seam.
Next, where the narrow width lines up on the base of the rectangle and the body of the fabric, stitch into place, but do not stitch the whole way. Leave a 0.5cm gap on the side next to the neckline slit. This will help when you attach the contrasting fabric to the lining. (Depending on your choice of lining method, sewing this rectangle panel to the lining can happen at this stage (historical flat lining), or after you attach the separate sets of sleeves to their respective shell and lining bodies (bag lining)). The insert should look like this before you trim away to re-shape the neck hole:
Next, cut a rectangle using the following equation, from both the contrasting fabric, and the lining fabric.
[Neck diameter] + (Seam allowance x 2) = width
[Neck keyhole slit] + (Seam allowance x 2) = length
The specific calculations I used were: 13cm + 2cm = 15cm, 30cm + 2cm = 32cm. The two rectangles should be width of 15cm and a length of 32cm.
Sew these two rectangles together, 'right side to right side', around 2 out of the 4 edges in a backwards 'L' shape, and leave the other 2 sides un-sewn. Leave these 2 edges un-sewn because the narrow top edge is going to be trimmed down anyway, and the long side edge will be sewn to the body. Trim the seam allowance in the backwards 'L' shape, and turn the panel inside out and press the edges.
Align this new lined rectangular panel up, 'right side to right side', with the long raw edge to the side of the neck slit on the opposite side to the replaced panel. While on the photo it directs to line this panel up [1cm] past where the neck slit line ends, do not do this. Instead, it should be about 0.25cm-0.5cm. Stitch this panel down entirely, ignore the instruction to leave a gap.
Once again, the panel gets turned over, the seam pressed flat, and the panel gets stitched down on the front in an 'L' shape to secure it down.
You should end up with something that looks like this before trimming to bring back the circular neck hole:
Once you're ready to add the lining to the shell permanently, make sure you flip the entire garment inside out and finish any raw seams.
This step is when I was also able to sew the lower lapel to the body lining in my project, with how I was doing the lining. But again, if you're flat lining, you do this step much earlier.
One of the final steps to create this collar, is binding it using 3-5cm width strips of the contrasting fabric. Bind in a similar technique to bias binding.
Using a straight stitch, sew the binding strip, 'right side to right side', on the front side of the body, starting on one side of a lapel panel, leaving ~1cm fabric over hanging the edge, and following the neck hole all the way around to the other lapel panel in a sort of loop-de-loop, again leaving ~1cm fabric hanging over the edge. Trim seam allowance if you please, but you must snip notches into the curved parts of the seam.
Then turn the garment inside out, adjust the contrasting fabric so it is pulled out of the neck hole and accessible to you. Wrap the over hang from one lapel inwards, making sure the narrow edge is sitting above the attaching stitch line. Next fold the top unattached side of the strip down to meet the base fabric, then bring the fold that was created down to touch the stitching line. Stitch the fold of the binding down using a whip stitch. Before you reach the end on the other lapel, tuck it's overhang back in, similar to how you started the first lapel. Once everything is whipped down, you may knot off and bury the thread.
And the final finishing touch would be to add a button and loop* closure for at least the top lapel. This button can be a bead/other period appropriate button material, or a button made from matching fabric.
*Depending on the type of loop closure you're using, this can also be inserted between the two rectangular layers making up the top lapel panel.
It's been a while since I bombarded you all with a swarm of beetle photos. So here are some beetles I've stitched, including some little peeks under 'the hood'. :D
Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo weβve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and itβs revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.
How is your spring going? Itβs getting warmer and warmer each day here in Ukraine, and that feels amazing! I finally have more time to work on a new pattern, and itβs already turning out so great! π
Iβm also getting closer to finishing that one thing Iβve mentioned to you from time to time. Itβs not a book and not a new pattern, but something that means a lot to me. I think I still need a few more months to finish everything β fingers crossed nothing goes wrong or distracts me again! π
Crochet pattern for amigurumi Watering Can with Hydrangea Flower πͺ» is available in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch here -> https://etsy.me/3PIIxMz π€
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Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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