Introduction and Materials
Introduction and Materials
I have made a few barrettes where I beaded around a cab and then glued this to a metal barrette. Whenever I wear them, I get compliments. You can use all kinds of cabs for this project including stone, porcelain, or fused glass. You can even cut the shank off a button and use that as a cabochon too. In this project, I used two fused glass cabs and two freshwater pearls that are flat on one side and round on the other.
To make this Beaded Cab Barrette, you will need the following tools and supplies:
*Lacy’s Stiff Stuff
E6000 glue
Pencil
Scissors
Ultra suede or piece of leather
Choice of seed beads
2 Fused glass cabochons
Ruler
Beading needle/thread
*Most companies who sell seed bead and seed bead supplies will carry Lacy's Stiff Stuff. While you can use thick interfacing instead, which is normally used for sewing, this product works really well with bead embroidery like you do around these cabs. So I recommend it if you can get it rather then regular sewing interface.
Measure and Mark the Stiff Stuff
1. Cut your Stiff Stuff so that you have plenty of room for your cabs and beads, and also make sure it will cover the back of your barrette completely. 2. Use a pencil and ruler to draw a ruler on your stiff stuff. I added marks as follows on mine pictured: large lines for 1 inch, medium lines for 1/2 inch, small lines for 1/4 inch. (The idea is to make sure you have equal measurements on this so that you can align the cabs correctly later.)
Position Cabs on Stiff Stuff
3. Now use the ruler you have drawn on the Stiff Stuff to determine where you want your cabs to be positioned. Use the marks to help ensure they are spaced evenly apart (unless, of course, you want to do an asymmetrical design instead). This is also when you need to estimate how many rows of beads you plan to sew around each cab. You must need leave enough room around your cabs for this. The size of your beads, number of rows, and size of your cabs will all vary.
So, I can not offer a specific measurement here.
4. Once you know where you want the cabs, use glue to adhere them onto the Stiff Stuff.
5. Allow some time to dry before continuing: a maximum of 24 hours and a minimum of 1 hour in case you can’t control yourself.
Sew Seed Beads Around Cabs
6. Next, start sewing seed beads around your cabs just as I described in the Beading Around a Cabochon project. I usually like to start in the middle and working my way to the outside. So, in the barrette pictured, I sewed two rows of different colors (purple and green) size 11 seed beads around the middle cabs. Then I started sewing two rows of a third color (turquoise) around an outside pearl. I did the same to the pearl on the opposite side.
Stitch Another Row of Seed Beads
7. After you finish sewing around your cabs until all the rows of beads are just about touching each other as described in the previous step, you will notice there is no space between the cabs. Each outside row of beads are touching another row of beads. At this point, you are ready to sew all around the outside of the beaded cabs as if they are just one piece.
More About Adding the Seed Beads
You will notice I sew rows of beads into the curves where the rows join each other. At this point, a lot of this is intuition. Add a bead if it fits. If you can’t add a bead, just keep working your row.
Add a Bead Ruffle
8. If you want you could stop the beading here, but I like to add a small ruffle effect. Again, this technique was used in part 2 of my Beaded Cab project. Not only does this ruffle look good, it covers up some of the white Stiff Stuff (hmm.. colored Stiff Stuff would be cool). I tend to use 3 beads for my ruffles, but you could also use 5 for each ruffle if you want a larger look. As long as you use an odd number of beads for the ruffle, it will work.
Add the ruffle all around each individual cab, or you can just add it to the last row of beads. It is up to you.
Prepare Back of Barrette
9. At this point, you are now ready to finish the back of the piece. Trim all around the Stiff Stuff making sure you do not cut any of the threads on the back or cut any of your ruffle on the front. A small sharp pair of scissors work best for this. With overly large scissors, you will have a difficult time with this part of the project.
10. Now cut a piece of ultra suede (or leather or suede) to the same size as your beaded cab piece.
If you have light colored ultra sued, trace around your piece onto the suede. If youare like me and have black ultra suede, ugh!, do the best you can by holding the suede up against the beaded piece and cutting around it.
11. You are now ready to attach the suede to your beaded piece using a whip stitch. This technique is similar to that in my Beaded Cab Necklace. Whip stitch, using thread that matches the ultra suede, all around so the two pieces are attached.
12. Squeeze some glue onto your barrette back, and attach the piece you finished in the previous step.
You are pretty much done now. You just need to let your master piece dry before you start showing it off to the world.
The variations on this basic bead embroidery technique are almost endless. You can make fused glass cabs or cabs using polymer clay or even resin would work great. Of course, you can also buy cabochons too.
I have made a few barrettes where I beaded around a cab and then glued this to a metal barrette. Whenever I wear them, I get compliments. You can use all kinds of cabs for this project including stone, porcelain, or fused glass. You can even cut the shank off a button and use that as a cabochon too. In this project, I used two fused glass cabs and two freshwater pearls that are flat on one side and round on the other.
To make this Beaded Cab Barrette, you will need the following tools and supplies:
*Lacy’s Stiff Stuff
E6000 glue
Pencil
Scissors
Ultra suede or piece of leather
Choice of seed beads
2 Fused glass cabochons
Ruler
Beading needle/thread
*Most companies who sell seed bead and seed bead supplies will carry Lacy's Stiff Stuff. While you can use thick interfacing instead, which is normally used for sewing, this product works really well with bead embroidery like you do around these cabs. So I recommend it if you can get it rather then regular sewing interface.
Measure and Mark the Stiff Stuff
1. Cut your Stiff Stuff so that you have plenty of room for your cabs and beads, and also make sure it will cover the back of your barrette completely. 2. Use a pencil and ruler to draw a ruler on your stiff stuff. I added marks as follows on mine pictured: large lines for 1 inch, medium lines for 1/2 inch, small lines for 1/4 inch. (The idea is to make sure you have equal measurements on this so that you can align the cabs correctly later.)
Position Cabs on Stiff Stuff
3. Now use the ruler you have drawn on the Stiff Stuff to determine where you want your cabs to be positioned. Use the marks to help ensure they are spaced evenly apart (unless, of course, you want to do an asymmetrical design instead). This is also when you need to estimate how many rows of beads you plan to sew around each cab. You must need leave enough room around your cabs for this. The size of your beads, number of rows, and size of your cabs will all vary.
So, I can not offer a specific measurement here.
4. Once you know where you want the cabs, use glue to adhere them onto the Stiff Stuff.
5. Allow some time to dry before continuing: a maximum of 24 hours and a minimum of 1 hour in case you can’t control yourself.
Sew Seed Beads Around Cabs
6. Next, start sewing seed beads around your cabs just as I described in the Beading Around a Cabochon project. I usually like to start in the middle and working my way to the outside. So, in the barrette pictured, I sewed two rows of different colors (purple and green) size 11 seed beads around the middle cabs. Then I started sewing two rows of a third color (turquoise) around an outside pearl. I did the same to the pearl on the opposite side.
Stitch Another Row of Seed Beads
7. After you finish sewing around your cabs until all the rows of beads are just about touching each other as described in the previous step, you will notice there is no space between the cabs. Each outside row of beads are touching another row of beads. At this point, you are ready to sew all around the outside of the beaded cabs as if they are just one piece.
More About Adding the Seed Beads
You will notice I sew rows of beads into the curves where the rows join each other. At this point, a lot of this is intuition. Add a bead if it fits. If you can’t add a bead, just keep working your row.
Add a Bead Ruffle
8. If you want you could stop the beading here, but I like to add a small ruffle effect. Again, this technique was used in part 2 of my Beaded Cab project. Not only does this ruffle look good, it covers up some of the white Stiff Stuff (hmm.. colored Stiff Stuff would be cool). I tend to use 3 beads for my ruffles, but you could also use 5 for each ruffle if you want a larger look. As long as you use an odd number of beads for the ruffle, it will work.
Add the ruffle all around each individual cab, or you can just add it to the last row of beads. It is up to you.
Prepare Back of Barrette
9. At this point, you are now ready to finish the back of the piece. Trim all around the Stiff Stuff making sure you do not cut any of the threads on the back or cut any of your ruffle on the front. A small sharp pair of scissors work best for this. With overly large scissors, you will have a difficult time with this part of the project.
10. Now cut a piece of ultra suede (or leather or suede) to the same size as your beaded cab piece.
If you have light colored ultra sued, trace around your piece onto the suede. If youare like me and have black ultra suede, ugh!, do the best you can by holding the suede up against the beaded piece and cutting around it.
11. You are now ready to attach the suede to your beaded piece using a whip stitch. This technique is similar to that in my Beaded Cab Necklace. Whip stitch, using thread that matches the ultra suede, all around so the two pieces are attached.
12. Squeeze some glue onto your barrette back, and attach the piece you finished in the previous step.
You are pretty much done now. You just need to let your master piece dry before you start showing it off to the world.
The variations on this basic bead embroidery technique are almost endless. You can make fused glass cabs or cabs using polymer clay or even resin would work great. Of course, you can also buy cabochons too.
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