wannaseestars

Sewing Sequins?

1:32 pm - 10/01/2005
What is the best way to sew loose sequins onto fabric? One by one by hand, or string them and then put them through a machine? What about sequins that are already store-bought strung together, sew them on a machine?

My cousin's wife just gave me a TON of sequins, mostly loose, but some strung. I've never really tried to sew them onto things before, so I'm just wondering the best way to sew them on. I'm thinking of making a sequined headband, so what would be the best method for something like that?
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hana_dammit 1st-Oct-2005 06:13 pm (UTC)
I usually just sew a bead in the center. Like, if you're going to sew a single sead bead to something... hang on. I'll draw you a picture.
hana_dammit 1st-Oct-2005 06:15 pm (UTC)
shit. there's no paint on this computer. Okay. Sequins have the little holes in the center, right? Take a needle and thread through cloth and middle of sequin. Add a sead bead and then thread back through. Repeat. It takes a while but yeilds awesome results.
wannaseestars 1st-Oct-2005 07:35 pm (UTC)
I know what you're talking about..my cousins wife, who gave me the sequins, thats what she does for her costumes. But I just want to make one straight line of bare sequins, and I was just wondering if theres a faster way of doing it, other than one by one (for loose sequins).
mexonxpedestal 1st-Oct-2005 06:36 pm (UTC)
What above commenter said or just find a matching thread (or contrasting, depending on what you're going for) and handsew it... it's VERY VERY TEDIOUS if you're doing a bunch of them.

Are you talking about the stretchy stuff that has sequins all over them? People are making belts out of them nowadays and stuff? I think for those I'd handsew too.. the machine needle wouldn't be able to handle piercing through sequins, unless you're really meticulous and move the sequins out of the way so the machine can catch the thread everything's kind of attached to... hmm...
wannaseestars 1st-Oct-2005 07:37 pm (UTC)
Yeah I was sort of talking about something like that..but these ones just come on a single strand on a spool. I was hoping there would be a quick way to do it on the machine, but I guess not. I hope to find patience..haha.
mexonxpedestal 1st-Oct-2005 08:25 pm (UTC)
AHA! I know what you mean now. With those I'd say just handsew through the hole in the sequin so you get the string attached to the fabric. That way your sewing thread won't even show at all.
donteatcrayons 1st-Oct-2005 08:58 pm (UTC)
i made a dress covered in lines of sequins not so long ago, they were loose and i did them on the machine. do a little experimenting to find out what stitch length is right for the sequin. if you have one, use a zipper foot, it makes life easier, push the sequin under the needle, sticth to the middle, sticth to the edge, repeat. i dunno if that was very clear?
lbwsampson 4th-Nov-2005 07:46 pm (UTC)
i'm hand-sewing sequins onto a t-shirt. it's my roller derby practice jersey. i'm sewing silver sequins around my number on the back and i'm sewing the front as well. but for the front, i'm sewing an outline of red and orange flames, probably with a black seed bead (thanks for the suggestion on that). i'll have to take a picture when i'm done. it should be pretty awesome.

and i'm SO glad i found this LJ community. i inherited my grandmother's 1957 singer sewing machine with about ten different foot attachments and every possible stich attachment---including the original directions for everything. hopefully this'll get me started on some fun projects.
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