Fabric beads are easy and fun to make and can be used to embellish all your creative sewing projects. They are also a great way to use up all those small scraps of leftover fabric and fibers. This tutorial shows you several ways to make embellished fabric beads.
What You Need
- Fabric Scraps
- Stabilizer
- Decorative Thread
- Krylon Gold Leaf Pen
- Fabric Glue
- 1/4″ or 3/8″ wooden dowel rod
Embellish the fabric
Here are a couple of simple and quick ways to embellish your fabric before you make your fabric beads.
You can easily embellish plain fabric using the decorative stitches on your sewing machine.
- Cut a piece of fabric approximately 6″ square.
- Place a piece of iron on stabilizer underneath the fabric.
- Thread your sewing machine with some Decorative Thread on top, and some fine bobbin thread in the bobbin. Fine bobbin thread will help to prevent thread jams when sewing decorative machine stitches.
- Choose your favorite decorative machine stitch and sew rows across the fabric from one side to the other.
Cut the fabric into strips. My favorite fabric bead size is about 1-1/2″ wide by about 2-3″ long and tapered to a point at one end.
An alternative way to embellish plain fabric is to draw a simple design using a Krylon Gold Leaf Pen. I love these pens as they work great on fabric and I use them for all sorts of embellishment touch-ups. Cut fabric strips about 1-1/2″ wide by about 2-3″ long, or the desired size, and than carefully draw a design on the fabric.
Make the fabric beads
On the right side of the fabric dab a bit of fabric glue to the squared off edge, and on the wrong side of the fabric add some fabric glue along the tapered edges. Then wrap the fabric around a piece of 1/4″ or 3/8″ dowel rod and press firmly to secure.
Once the glue has dried, you can then embellish the fabric beads with bits of fiber and beads if desired. This is a great week-end project and you’ll have dozens of fabric beads in no time at all!
Love your fabric beads. I have always made mine with a triangle piece of fabric but now want to try yours including embellishing before making the beads. Thanks for a great idea.
I’m one of the lucky folks in Melbourne who had the pleasure of taking a class with Linda today. All I can say is amazing! We had fun and learned such unique techniques for embellishing…and best of all… there were NO quilt police. The class was a success for all. Thank you so much Linda.
Thanks Gabriele 🙂 I love to teach, and I love to see my students get excited and inspired by new techniques. It was a great class and I had fun too 🙂
Thank you Linda for the wonderful lessons, step by step, THANKS SO MUCH YOU !!!…
Thank you Linda for your generosity in sharing your ideas and methods, and also for the motivation and encouragement that your tutorials provide.
I make beautiful fabric beads with Weldbond glue and straws. The glue seals the fabric making them great for jewelry. You can seal the ends by dipping in craft paint. People seem to love the jewelry.
What different things do you use the beads for?
This looks like loads of fun! I love your ideas, having followed you for the past year. You are so talented and very generous with your knowledge.