tgif quickie :: Fabric Covered Beads

Well, Mardi Gras may be way over, but those beads can live on! I raided my little girls' stash of necklaces to make some revamped jewelry featuring my favorite medium..fabric. (Trust me, they won't miss this necklace--they usually wield it as a weapon. That's when dress up goes bad.)  Little hands will enjoy helping on this project, too.

Get it:

• Plastic necklace with medium-large diameter beads glued onto the string
• Fabric, at least 18" long for bracelet, longer for necklace
• Embroidery floss
• sewing machine

Do it:

• Cut necklace to open it up
• Drape beads over wrist to see how long you want it. I cut it to 8" for mine. For a necklace, don't cut any length off
• Cut your fabric. Width: Measure the diameter of your beads, double it and add 1" for seam allowance. My beads were approx. 3/4" in diameter, so I cut the fabric strip  2 1/2" wide. Length: Add 5" to each end of your strand (total 10") for the ties. Mine was 8" so 18" long total.
• Once you have your strip cut, hem the ends. Right sides together, sew fabric along the length, making a little inside-out tube. Nifty.

 

• Turn your tube right side out. Iron flat. This is the hardest part--getting that sucker turned!

• One at a time, push beads into the tube. It's kind of awkward, like stuffing a sausage. I think. I've never made sausage.

• Once the whole length is enclosed, center the strand in the middle of the tube. I sewed across the ends of the tube and also sewed across the tube next to the beads, creating a tie. Leave wiggle room at each end of the beads, about 1 1/2-2". You'll need it when you're tying--it cinches up the fabric.
• Use embroidery floss to tie off each bead. First knot it tightly, then wrap around three more times, and knot again. Cut. Repeat for each bead. Iron ties nice and flat. And there you have it--new jewelry! And when you get tired of the fabric or spill coffee on yourself, you can cut it off and do it again.

 

Happy Weekend!

Comments

[Tamie Snow]

So cute! I need one!

[Carrie]

Oh I love this technique! So much better than gluing fabric to the beads, which I have done before, messy. Thanks =)

[deb]

brilliant, fun technique. In my delicious tags, and someday in a post.

[Angela of Prescott]

I'm so glad you posted this... I wondered how to do those and do I ever have a surplus of those necklaces! Awesome, thanks!

[Debie Trotti]

Can't wait to try it!

[Karin]

What a great idea, I never would have thought of that!

[Wendy]

Oh, we have a HUGE basket full of these things. No one will ever notice if a couple of them go missing.

Genius idea!

[megan]

oh man!! this in ingenious. im setting my daughter up with this tonight as just the other day she brought me her strings of broken 'pearls' to throw out... we dont throw anything out... so this is a !perfect! project. thanks (im also the imadeit shop --in flickr)

[Mary Ann]

I'm taking you up on this!

[woolies]

You should see the mess I've made of this previously - will be trying it this way - thanks!!!

[Amy from Texas]

Great idea!!

[Emma]

An adaptation: You can use smaller beads with large centre holes outside the fabric instead of thread to fix the big beads in place.