Sewing Fabric Beading into the Design on Your Fabric

You know how it is when you have this beautiful piece of fabric and you really love whatever is printed on it and you don't really want to cut it up and you can't really come up with a quilt idea for it or anything like that. That happens to me a lot because I hand paint a lot of my own fabrics and I'm like what am I going to do with this fabric? And so what I've been doing a lot lately is hand beading and hand-stitching that fabric using the motif that is printed on it as my stitching and beading guide. And I bead in stitch on lots of fabrics but I haven't really done it in this way, using that print to guide how I'm going to bead it. And so that's what I'm doing with this piece.

This was hand dyed using a technique called deconstructed silkscreening, which is just a funky technique for putting textural designs down. And so it's like a boutique fabric if you will, but it has these great circular designs that aren't perfect circles, this wonderful zig-zaggy design. I believe this was a washer. And so another circular design. And then I really liked the spiral design that's in here.

And so I'm going to use those as a guide as to where I'm going to put what beads. So I've already stitched this circle. And I think it turned out really, really nice. I like it a lot. I started by putting bugle beads in a row around portions of the circle.

And then when the circle got really messy, like it was here and I couldn't, there was no hard edge to guide me, I changed to a different type of beading. And then I surrounded the circle with the little French knots and I made sure that they were rough and not very perfect so that they would resemble what they're sitting on, which is rough and not very perfect. And then I had this edge of the circle out here, and so I just added some big stitches that are mimicking the little tiny stitches I put in here, that's called ricing. And I left naked areas in the background here and added these wonderful flower beads and leaf beads. And so I basically let the circle guide my stitching and my bead selection.

And I'm really pleased with how it turned out. So now I'm working on this circle and I'll make some decisions about these other things. I'm using an embroidery needle with embroidery floss for anything that I can, meaning that if it will go through the bead, I'll use it to put the beads on too. If it won't go through the bead, then I switch to a silamide. This is a silamide or a beading thread.

You could also use hand quilting thread. You just want the thread to be very strong. So here, I've got this wonderful bead here that's square and these are all glass beads, and the bead has two holes in it that go all the way across. So a total of two holes on one side and two holes on the other. And so I thought they would be perfect on this arc, this partial circle.

So as I laid them out, I just thought, Oh yeah that's just going to be fabulous. And then I'll probably put some in between. Right now I'm just stitching down one side and then I'll go and stitch down the other side when I come back. So what I basically do is bring the needle out and put on the bead and then take the needle back down the width away that I want it to be. Let me get that in place real quick.

There we go. So I'm looking for a distance that is about the same size as the bead. So I'll take it down right on the other side of the bead and bring it back up the distance that it's about the width of the bead away. So about right there, and then pull it all the way through, it'll tuck that bead down. Put on another bead.

Go back down right next to the edge of that bead and then bring it back up bead's width away. So right next to up a bead's width the way. Pull it tautly, but not so tautly that you distort it. I'm really liking how this is going around that edge. And so I'm using the design on the fabric to tell me or give me ideas or inspiration for bead selection and bead positioning.

If you've never bought beads before you can get them at almost any hobby store, but of course there are specialty bead stores too. Unlike going and looking for fabric that you buy at the fabric store, you leave a bead store after you've spent a hundred dollars or more, you leave with an itty bitty tiny bag. So be prepared if you've never bought beads before that they are a little bit on the pricey side. So I'll just do one more because I don't want to go too close to the edge because I'm not sure where I'm going to be putting a binding or what type of binding I'll put on. And after I get this bead down, then I'll go ahead and I'm going to bring it out on the other side so that I can really quickly go through the opposite side of all of these beads.

So I'll go through and then down and then bring it up so I can go through the opposite side of the next one. And through and pull through so that I can stitch that second side down. Okay? So that will be the next thing that I do is stitch that second side down and they'll lay down flat. But before I do that, I can do that later, I want to show you some other ideas that I'm going to do to finish this piece off with.

So I've got some space in between each of these, and I left that space on purpose, because I figured I'd put another bead in between there. And I'll probably use a very simple seed bead, but I want it to make sure that it shows on that purple. And I'm not seeing one that I could probably use there. So maybe instead I'll use a bugle bead. So I could lay a bugle bead, either lengthwise in between each one or widthwise in between each one.

And I'll see which one I liked better. I definitely like it going long ways. So I'll probably come in and do another row of those in between there. It's this one over here that's really exciting me because I have this wonderful triangle-shaped bead and these all have a little point on them. And I thought that would be very, very fun to do to put that triangle bead.

And what I'm going to do is I'm going to use my needle here so I can position these. So I can take the point of that triangle bead and position it down in that corner of each of these. Come over here. And I think that will really accentuate the motif that is printed on there. You can see what's happening here.

And I always do this auditioning so I can see whether or not I'm going to like how that's going to look when it's sewn down. And I think I'm really going to like that. So again, it's the motif that's giving me the idea of placement. You see how it looks when it's out here. And that's going to look cool and it's going to follow that spiral.

So that's going to be really wonderful all the way around. And where isn't a little teeth, I'll pretend that there are, and just get that going. And then as the teeth come out, get that spiral going, and place them where I think they should be even if there isn't one until it leads me to the ones where there are, and I'll increase that spiral feel. So I think that's going to be very fun. Now, the way these will go down is there'll be topped with a little seed bead.

So you'll take a seed bead and it will sit right on top of each of these little triangles and they'll hold it down. So that seed bead will sit right on top of that triangle there. And that'll look really cool. And so it'll add a sense of color in there too. So that's a good audition for that one.

Which leads me to this next big circle, and I can do just about anything I want to with it because it's really wide and it gives me lots of opportunity to put something really cool in there. I happen to have these really big beautiful beads here that I've been wanting to use. And I was thinking that they would look good across here. And I think they will look very good across there, but I don't have a lot of them. So as I audition them I know I'm going to have to move them pretty far apart but look how they look like spokes on that.

That's very cool. Very, very cool. So I'll have to put something else in between but then I also have the these that have a similar feel to those, but a different shape. So I think I want to use them too, someplace else. So if I come down here and possibly put them around this circle, that might be really cool.

Chunky beads and chunky beads. So I think that might work. I like that a lot too. This is a partial circle. I could put, repeat that and put three in there, maybe, I'm not sure.

But I'll look at that and see. So what you're seeing happening is that I'm using the motif that is printed on the pattern, on the fabric to guide all my decisions and all my choices. These are very cool, little bead too. They're a drop bead, which means that they have their whole on one end and they hang loose. And so I could use that drop bead here too.

And that might be a better option to go around the center of this. I think that might look really cool also. It's a little more delicate, not so hefty. I think that will look very nice around there. So there's no one answer.

There's lots of different options that I can use. I then have this wonderful square bead and it's a hex bead that I used over here, too. And I like this mottling that's happening in here. And so I could take the square beads and wherever there's dark green, just throw down these little square beads, never put it in the violet area, just put it in the darker green area and have them mottling along with the fabric. And I think that's going to look really nice.

So as I put those in place. See how fun that looks? I think that mimics and imitates what's happening on the surface of the fabric really, really well. I'm not even sure what made that design but I think those beads are gonna service that really really nicely. So I'm going to come back here for the in-between on here and see what I'd like to do.

Luckily, I have more flowers. I have these nice little red violet flowers. And they might be the answer in between, Oh yeah, that looks wonderful. And that's a repeat of flower and I have flower motifs here, and it brings that together. I'm always looking for ways that I can repeat a design because repetition makes something look like it belongs.

And then if I wanted to, I could stick a flower in the middle of that. I think that would look pretty cool. So I'm really liking how that looks. We're also hex beads, but they're a metallic, and I think they would look wonderful scattered inside this circle. Absolutely.

And then scattered inside this circle to repeat them. Doesn't that look cool? So basically what I'm doing is I'm auditioning all of these different beads to see how they're going to play out across the surface, and then I'll go ahead and do the stitching. After that stitching is done, then I'll determine what type of hand stitching to do or where to do it. Because all I'm going to do is this seed stitch.

Some people call it a ricing stitch. So I'm just going to show you real quickly how I would sew down the beads that have a topper. So that would be these beads right here. And then I'll show you that rice stitch real quickly, and then you'll be set to go ahead and do some bead work on motifs of fabric of your own. I'm going to go ahead and use the silamide because I happen to know these tiny seed beads will not take a big needle and I'm gonna make sure I have a needle that they will take.

So I always take the needle I'm planning on using, and before I put the thread on it, make sure that the seed bead pulls over on it, and this one does, and I'll thread the needle. And I only need a single layer of thread because this thread is very, very strong and I'll knot it. The nice thing is, is that there's no back on this piece yet that will go on after all the beads are down, but before I do all of the stitching, I'll do some of the stitching, but some of the stitching will go through all the layers and some of them will only go through the batting and the top layer. So I'm going to come in from behind where I want the middle of my triangular bead to be. Grab the triangle bead with the tip of my needle, and then grab the seed bead with the tip of my needle.

Normally I would put this on the fabric here but push the whole thing down. Now I'm not going to go through the seed bead, I'm only going to go through the triangle bead, and I'll pull the thread all the way through, and that'll suck that seed be down on the surface of that triangle bead and hold it in place. Then I'll bring my needle up again, where I want the center of my next triangle bead, do the same thing. Grab the triangle bead, grab the seed bead, set them down on the surface, go through only the triangle bead, not the seed bead. And it will suck that triangle down and I'll move over to the next one.

So that's how simple it is to sew on beads. They don't require a whole lot of fancy stitching. We're not doing any fancy stitching. We're actually just adding beads to add to the motif that is already printed on the surface of the fabric. But right now you can see how cool these triangles look on the points of this little portion of the print.

That just looks wonderful. Okay? And then I'm going to show you what a seed stitch looks like or ricing. So I need my needle back. And I'm just going to rice over here.

I'm going to take a stitch. That is, I want to start from the back here. Take a stitch that is the size I want my ricing to be. So I'm going to take a stitch that's about an eighth of an inch and I'll pull my thread back up. So I've got my first stitch there, take another stitch in a different direction.

Pull my needle back up, take a stitch in another direction, pull my needle back up. There's really no rhyme or reason to which direction I'm starting in are moving in. I just keep moving from direction to direction, making my stitch lengths as consistent as possible. And this is supposed to look as though I have thrown out a handful of rice and that's why some people call it ricing and/or little seeds, and that's why some people call it seed stitch. Either way, it should look like little bits of rice or little seeds have been thrown across the surface willy-nilly but with some consistency of size, because generally if you throw down rice it's all, each grain is about the same size.

And this is a wonderful decorative stitch that doesn't, it's almost like a stipple when you machine quilt, because it doesn't really deplete from the beautiful print that you have on your fabric. So easy stack stitch, putting a small bead on top of a more decorative bead to hold that decorative bead down, a running stitch, sewing on beads just right through their holes. And then another type of running stitch that makes a seed stitch or a ricing stitch that is quite decorative but not so decorative that it takes away from the bead work that we're doing. The very last thing I'm going to show you is a French knot because I've used French knots out here. And a French knot is simply a series of twists of your thread around the tip of your needle.

So I'm going to come close to the surface of the fabric with the tip of my needle and wrap that tip four or five times, like so. Then take the tip back through the surface of the needle, basically right next to where you pulled it out and then pull the whole thread through, and it leaves a wonderful little French knot. So I'll do that one more time. Pull the thread all the way through the surface, put the end of your needle, the tip of your needle down by the surface where the thread came out and make four or five wraps. Put the tip of the needle back through the surface about where it came out, pull it all the way through, and there's your little French knot.

So very simple stitching, nothing that requires a whole lot of skillset, other than paying attention to what's printed on the surface of your fabric and using some of those beautiful prints whole like they were designed by their designer and really showing off that wonderful, wonderful motif.