How-to

Working with Embellished Fabrics,

Part I
By Susan Khalje

I’ve had a piece of beautifully embellished silk chiffon for a while. A recent studio
reorganization turned it up, and I think it’s time to work with it. It’s heavily
decorated with glass seed and bugle beads, metallic thread embroidery, and
sequins. The ornamentation is so thick that you have to search to see any of the
chiffon underlay. This fantastic material inspires a tutorial about working with
heavily embellished fabric. I’ll take you through the process as I create a
garment.

This project is broken down into two sections. Part 2 will be covered in another
post. In this first part, I’ll explain how to:

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• Check the fabric to make sure the embellishments are securely sewn
on
• Attach an underlining
• Remove the beads from the seam allowances of the side seams
• Deal with the darts
• Sew and catch-stitch the side seams
• Prepare the lining
First, consider the nature of my chosen design and fabric. I am keeping the
design simple—a straight skirt that is slightly pegged at the hem, without a
waistband, underlined with silk organza, and lined with silk charmeuse. I have
about a yard of fabric. At 45 inches wide, it’s not wide enough to go around me,
especially considering seam allowances. As the embellishments are symmetrical
from side to side, I cut it down the middle, parallel to the selvages, and created
two identical pieces. I’ll use these pieces horizontally.
With a minimal hem (I’ll add a facing) and a simple treatment at the waistline, I’ll
end up with a skirt that’s about 22 inches long. While it is not a long skirt, there’s
a lot going on embellishment-wise, so less is going to be more, in this case.

Cut and prepare the embellished fabric

1. Create two identical pieces to use horizontally by cutting the fabric down the
middle, parallel to the selvages.
Note: Use your oldest scissors for this cutting job because, inevitably, you will
be cutting through beads.

A single yard of heavily beaded 45-inch-wide fabric is not enough to go around me. However, the embellishments
are symmetrical from side to side, so I can cut the fabric down the middle and create two identical pieces to use
horizontally.
2. Check the embellished fabric carefully after you have cut out pattern pieces.
Embellishments are typically applied with a tambour hook. While that technique
enables the embellisher to work at great speed, applying a tremendous number
of beads quickly and easily, it is a liability. The embellishments are applied with a
chainstitch, so once a thread is pulled, it can keep on pulling, releasing the beads
as it goes. Stabilize threads that have worked their way loose. A dab of tacky
glue on the reverse side works well, as do a few stitches in place. It might be
necessary to do some filling in, so save any loose embellishments.
3. Keep the pattern as simple as possible and eliminate any seams you can. I am
using a straight skirt pattern.

Underlining
4. Prepare the silk organza underlining, using carbon paper to trace the stitching
lines, darts, waistline and hemline. I’ve added a few horizontal reference lines, to
help me orient the fabric symmetrically.

I got rid of the center-back seam so the design won’t be interrupted, and it will
eliminate one tricky-to-sew seam, leaving just the two side seams. The zipper will
go along the left side seam instead of down the center back.

5. Pin the organza to the chiffon as carefully and symmetrically as possible.

Steam the layers from the silk organza side to help mesh them, and do a fair
amount of basting and internal tacking to keep the layers together. The
embellished fabric is heavy, and you don’t want it to sag, now or later. Keep it in
line by joining it to the well-behaved organza.
Pin through the fashion fabric/organza unit on the wrong side along the seamline.

Remove beads from seam allowances

6. Before the side seams can be sewn, the glass beads need to be cleared from
the seam allowances. The ornamentation consists of tiny sequins (those can
stay), metallic thread embroidery (that can stay), seed beads (those have to go)
and bugle beads (those also have to go). Work carefully, though, cutting only
through the threads that hold the beads on, not through the underlying fabric.
Working from the right side and using the pins as a guide, you can see where beads have to be removed.
The seam allowance is now free of beads.

7. Go back to working on the wrong side of the fabric: Peel back the organza a
little bit, and dab glue over the loose threads wherever beads were removed; use
a really tacky, quick-drying fabric glue.

Dab glue over the loose threads where beads were removed.
Once the glue has dried, smooth the organza back into place and baste the two
layers together along the side seams.There shouldn’t be any beads in the seam
allowance; if any were overlooked, remove them and glue their loose threads.

Create the darts

8. Now it’s time to deal with the darts. Stitch the darts in the organza and press
them over a ham.

Stitch the darts in the organza.

9. Obviously, there’s going to be extra fashion fabric, so that has to be dealt

with.
The fashion fabric is too thick to dart in the usual way. The solution is to cut and overlap the fabric.

The fashion fabric is too thick to dart in the traditional manner, so the fabric is
cut into, and one side overlaps the other.

You can shape the darts on a ham, which mimics the contours of the body.

Find a “leading edge” on the upper layer (a nice line along which to cut and
then stitch), trim the excess from underneath, then put the the top layer back
into place.

Hand-stitch the cut edge through all three layers: the edge of the top layer, the
underlayer, and the silk organza. The stitches and the new seam are nearly
invisible from the right side of the fabric, but they can be seen on the underside.
The stitches and new seam are nearly invisible from the garment’s right side.

The darts can be seen on the underside.

It is a good idea to do this sort of shaping on a ham, as it mimics the body’s

contours.

It isn’t necessary for shaping to be right over the darts; it just needs to be in the
same general area, and eliminate the same amount of excess from the
embellished fabric as from the darts.

Sew the side seams

10. Now it’s time for the side seams. With right sides together, thoroughly pin
the side seams, taking care to align the patterns in the embellishments perfectly.
Fork pins keep the layers from shifting during machine stitching.

Use fork pins. They do a superb job of keeping the layers (four layers, counting
the organza) from shifting as you stitch with a zipper foot. The needle goes
along the stitching line, alongside the beads that are still in the body of the
fabric.

11. I often sew these sorts of seams twice, stitching slowly, just to make sure the
stitching is tight. The loft of the fabric created by the embellishments can make
a tight seam challenging. Stitch very slowly. My theory is that by stitching slowly,
the needle can slide down alongside any beads that it encounters. If you stitch
quickly, the needle can hit errant beads directly: You’ll break beads, you’ll break
needles, you’ll put holes in the underlying fabric.

12. Finish the side seams. Press them open thoroughly, and catch-stitch the
seam allowances to the silk organza underlining. This will keep them flat.
Catch-stitch the seam allowances to the silk organza underlining.

13. Go back to secure the beads along the seamlines, adding a few here and
there to fill in any missing sections. You can see where a few beads need to be
filled in.

Before filling in with beads …

… and after filling in with beads.

Now that the skirt is sewn together, I’m glad I went to the trouble of basting the
embellished fabric so thoroughly to the silk organza. Fabrics that are densely
ornamented with glass beads, like this one, are heavy and need support.

14. Assemble the silk charmeuse lining. Sew the darts and side seams, and
keeping an opening in the left side seam to accommodate the zipper.

Jump to the second installment, “Working with Heavily Embellished Fabrics, Part
2,” to see how to finish the skirt.

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