How to make fabric beads from scraps

I'm still obsessed with fabric beads. This is very odd since I usually spend a few days working on something and then go on to another project. Perhaps it's because I was presented with a challenge that I couldn't resist. There is nothing I like more than a challenge.

The other day, one of my online friends, Shauna, mentioned that she had tried making fabric beads following directions she had read on the Internet. She was quite frustrated since her results were less than stellar.

The technique involved taking scraps of material, fibers, threads, etc. and washing the collection in the washing machine or by hand and then drying everything in the dryer where the material/fibers would get tangled. The instructions then said to take a small amount of the tangled material, roll into a small, tight ball, pin in place to hold everything together, and then stitch the material until a tight bead was formed. Once this was done, the bead could be embellished with seed beads.

After following the directions, Shauna lamented, "My material didn't clump up. It just made a mess in the washer." I felt badly for her, and since I was stuck in the house while Hurricane Bill deluged northern NJ with rain, I decided to try my hand at this technique.

Here is my simplified version of how to make beads from scraps of fabric and thread. I like "simple" don't you? I also like to recycle. It makes me feel patriotic and noble. I'm not adding to the landfill. I'm not increasing my carbon footprint. I'm creating something from nothing. Oh what a good girl am I!

I decided to bypass the washing and drying steps. First of all, it saved time. Second of all, it saved water and electricity. I'm getting greener and greener by the moment. The goal of the washing and drying step was to get a tangled mess of frayed fabric.

I accomplished this by cutting some odds and ends of fancy fibers into 12 inch pieces.
I then ripped some scraps of fabric into very, very thin strips. The goal was to have lots of threads hanging off the fabric. To be honest, when I was all done making the bead, I could hardly see the frayed edges because I had sewn the bead so tightly. The trick is to have the material in very thin strips (as close to 1/4" as possible.)
Next step was to intersperse the fibers and fabric .....
and then roll the whole thing up into a ball.
Next, cut off a small amount from the fabric/fiber ball.
Rather than pinning the fabric/fiber into a bead shape, I used a temporary adhesive spray (used by quilters to hold paper pattern pieces to fabric) which did a lovely job of holding the fabric pieces together while I formed the ball. Note: It didn't make the fabric sticky as I had feared.
Knowing that I would need to attach my bead to a chain using a jump ring, I inserted a wire through the material before I stitched the bead. Once the bead was tightly sewn together, it would have been impossible to get the wire through the bead. I am so proud of myself for having figured this out before I made my bead.
Working my way around the bead, I used colored thread to stitch the strips of material tightly together. This way if my stitches showed, I could claim it was part of the design.

After the bead was stitched tightly, I had fun embellishing the bead. I used metallic threads of various colors which I wrapped around and stitched through the bead. I finished up by sewing small beads all around the bead. I have to admit, it was a labor-intensive project and took a couple of hours, but the results were worth it.

And I have the satisfaction of having met the challenge.

The Continuing Saga of the Intrepid Curtain Embellisher

Allow me to continue to amuse and amaze you with my adventures embellishing the plain white curtain (see blog post dated January 6, 2009 ).

But, before I do this, I would like to go on record as having developed a new art craze.
I am sure you are quite familiar with the world of mixed-media and altered art. One month, everyone is altering cigar boxes and everywhere you turn, there are articles and posts showcasing these charming, altered boxes. Three months later, we're all decorating corsets. You can't turn around without being hit in the head with a corset (perish the thought). And so it goes, from altered books to embellished sneakers.

But, have you ever seen anyone alter a curtain? I'll bet not. I know I'm on the cutting edge of a new trend. Remember, you saw it first here. Before long, I'm sure there will be articles in Somerset and Cloth, Paper, Scissors on how to alter plain white curtains. Workshops will be held at various venues on how to embellish the plain white curtain. Before you know it, many people will claim to have created this art form. But I will have the satisfaction of knowing that it all started with me. LOL

I digress. Back to the saga of the now blue sun printed curtain. As I mentioned, I was still not particularly thrilled with the results of my day's labor of love (or maybe that should read my day's frustration).

I proceeded to spend the next day, working on the curtain. You may have heard the saying, "less is more." Well, my saying is "more is never enough." With this in mind, I set about to try to salvage my project.




The first thing I did was to try to add texture and depth to the curtain by using fabric inkpads and a brayer wrapped with rubber bands.

















I was totally unimpressed with this step. Next, I tried using rubber stamps. After using both bold stamps and alphabet stamps, I began to like my results.

Feeling encouraged, I decided to make some fabric birds and butterflies to add to the curtain.


I found some interesting fibers and attached them to the curtain hoping they looked like branches. Then I pinned the birds and butterflies to the curtain. Here's a close up of the top half of the curtain.













But, standing back, I think that the bottom half of the curtain still looks a little sparse. What do you think? I'm thinking maybe some flowers would be a nice addition.





One of these days, I'll get to it.













However, I'm still very pleased with the way this altered curtain has turned out so far. (Now don't forget that you first read about altered curtains here.)

What's Behind the Curtain?

No, it isn't the Wizard of Oz. Guess again.

Hiding behind this boring white curtain is part of my every-growing fabric stash.

Let me explain. Years ago, this was my son's bedroom, and he used these shelves to store his games, books, record albums etc. Now it's the room my grandson sleeps in when he visits. Not one to let a nice set of empty shelves go uncluttered, I began storing fabric on them. At first, it was just a few pieces. Then I added a few more pieces. The next thing I knew, those shelves were overflowing with fabric. I just can't imagine how that happened!

Howie, who is usually not a neat freak, began muttering about the "room looking a mess (not the word he actually used)." I, on the other hand, thought the stacked fabrics looked colorful and inspiring. So we went back and forth about it. (Let me add, it was a rather loud and emotional type of back and forth.) Having been married for over 40 years, we've learned how to pull each others strings as well as how to rewind the string ever so nicely.

In the interest of marital peace, I decided to make a simple curtain to cover the shelves. That was easy. But I really didn't like the way the stark white curtain looked.

I wondered what could I do about this plain, white curtain. It occurred to me that I could dye that big, plain piece of white fabric. I had everything I needed and set about mixing the dye and letting the fabric soak. But then tragedy struck. Drum roll please. As I pulled my rubber gloves off, I noticed my right hand had turned blue.

How could this have happened? I had checked the gloves to make sure there were no holes in them before I started. You know what they say, "Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue."

Here's how the curtain look after it was dyed a lovely shade of blue.

I really liked the way fabric looked. But I'm not one "to leave well enough alone" as the saying goes. So I decided to try out the Setacolor Soleil sun printing fabric that I had in the house for a few years. This was back in August, and it was a beautiful, sunny, windless day. Perfect for sun printing.

This is a picture of some of the items I placed on the curtain after I had applied the Setacolor Soleil paint.

I was hoping to get some interesting shadowy images. . As with many of my artistic experiments, I was sorely disappointed. Here you can see how it turned out.

Here are the three things that I learned while doing this project. Perhaps this information will save you from screwing up like I did.

First of all, never try to sun print a huge piece of fabric. It was very unwieldy and I kept kneeling on my painted sections as I tried to reach the unpainted areas.

Second, the sun moves. Yup, one minute I was working in a nice, sunny spot and the next minute, the fabric was in the shade and I had to move the fabric which was a pain in the neck. I know this is basic science and I probably learned it in third grade, but for some reason I forgot to anticipate this phenomenon.

Third, trying to be clever, I had cut out cardboard birds and scattered them over the fabric anticipating I'd get some nice bird shadows and outlines. Well, this did not work out at all. I realized that my birds should have been much bigger. Can you see them? No. Neither could I.

Well, to be honest, I wasn’t thrilled with the final results of my sun-dying project. But I'm not one to give up.

To be continued......