How to Sew Beads on Pillows
A good throw pillow lends both a decorative and comfortable presence to a bedspread or piece of living room furniture and can be especially attractive and interesting with the addition of some bead work. It's often difficult, however, to sew beads to the face of a pillow after the pillow has been finished. With a creative approach to gripping and sewing the fabric, you can create the bead designs you want and avoid sewing through the pillow or into the stuffing.
Instructions
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1
Use straight pins to designate where you want the bead patterns to go. If you have pins with large, round heads, these are good for getting an idea for not just the positioning of the beads, but some sense of how they'll look. Experiment with the placement of the pins until you have a design you like. Use one pin to represent each bead you want to attach.
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2
Pinch the pillow fabric to pull it away from the stuffing. Use the straight pin's head to help you find the spot you want to pinch and pull it away, then remove the pin. If some of the pillow's stuffing gets stuck in the fabric you've pinched, release and try again so that you can just hold onto the cloth.
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3
Insert the needle carefully. Avoid poking it through any of the stuffing and try to capture the smallest portion of fabric you can to avoid a stitch that's too stretched out from one side to the other. Pull the thread through and tie it securely to the tail end on the reverse side of the stitch.
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4
Thread the bead onto the needle and sew it into place. Continue pinching the fabric and pulling it away from the stuffing as you go to avoid sewing the beads to the inside of the pillow. For each bead, loop the stitching through the beading hole and through the fabric at least four times to ensure that it's sewn in place securely.
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5
Repeat steps 2 to 4 with each isolated bead you want to attach.
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6
Sew on longer rows of beads, if desired. If you want to attach strings of beads, rather than sewing beads individually, use a thicker beading cord or double-wrapped thread. After attaching the thread with the first stitch, string the beads on one by one. Lay the bead string across the pillow the way you want it, then secure the beads with a stitch on the other end. Tie off the thread, then secure the line of beads in place using small stitches that bisect the beaded cord between the beads (you don't have to do this between every bead, just enough to keep the string from sagging).
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