A Very Frivolous Project – Second Stage
Laying Out The Large Elements
Once I had decided which of the score or so of arrangements I was going to create, I laid out the large elements on the needlefelted felt and tweaked the design a little more.
The gaps will be filled in with little flower gems and seed beads, so I ended up spacing out the large elements a little more. Then I had to work out how to sew them on. You see, unlike the original design in the magazine which had used oversized sew-on gems with no settings, I had ended up buying a selection of bead-and-purl assemblages from Aarti J’s and Bombay Fabrics. They weren’t quite as straightforward to sew on, and they certainly couldn’t be temporarily attached with safety pins, lest I break or crack some of the check purl.
Sewing on the large gems was several evenings’ work, as it turned out, using a fine but sturdy needle and being careful where I placed it. Still, each assemblage is backed with stiffened muslin, so in some cases it was relatively easy to stitch through the muslin and avoid the beads. In other cases the thread snagged on the front of one gem while I was working on another!
This is looking lovely already.
🙂 I get that thread snagging on other parts of the design when I am beading. You do get into a habit of keeping the loop of thread under control but it still happens occasionally.
I like your bead and purl assemblages.
This is a very interesting project. The granddaughter (fascinated with Egyptian ancient history) would want one of those collars so I’m hiding this site from her!
By the way, thanks for the link to Aarti J’s! What sequins!
Quite lovely! You have created a beautiful piece.
An Indian friend took me to a haberdashery store when I was in Dehli and I was overwhelmed by all the buttons and beads, silk threads etc. I saw some like these and bought them, along with lots of other things. How they knew where everything in the store was I don’t know and the other interesting thing was that the beads were sold seperately. Yours look amazing.
It’s looking great – looking forward to seeing what you do next!!
It looks so pretty!
It is looking good and your patience is paying off. I am in the midst of a very painstaking (tedious-but-worth-it) piece, so I know how you feel. I always keep visualising the end result, and that keeps me going through the fiddy-faddy bits!
I am still intrigued as to what this is, but it’s looking very pretty. I know what you mean about this kind of difficult to reach sewing on of things. Best done in short bursts over several evenings!
wow…so opulent…it needs to be worn at a very posh dinner!!! (or at the Oscars!!)
Stunning accent pieces! I love those bead and purl combinations. 😮