All embroidery projects are absolutely beautiful on their own, and often need no form of enhancement. But for that extra special finish you can add beads and sequins to your embroidery.
There are a few ways to add these extra special touches to your embroidery projects. You can incorporate them in to your stitches as you are creating your embroidery piece. To incorporate beads and sequins in to your embroidery stitches you will need very tiny beads and sequins, look in your local hobby store for seed beads and matching sequins. When attaching something as small as a seed bead to any project you will need to make sure you have a small enough needle, so make sure you purchase a beading needle.
You can also add beads and sequins to your embroidery projects once you have finished them. For example, you may only wish to add a few beads or sequins to highlight an area, such as the sparkle on a start or the twinkle in a characters eyes. This finish is very understated, but it will add just that little touch of perfection many sewers seek in their embroidery projects. You may wish to use a clear thread for this, so as not to disturb the colors of the embroidery or the sequins and beads.
Another method for attaching beads and sequins to embroidery is by using surface embroidery. This is a little more technical than simple sewing the beads and sequins directly onto the fabric. With surface embroidery of any kind the idea is to create a pattern on the top of the fabric, with minimal wastage of thread on the reverse, it can also cover a large area very quickly, where are sewing on individual beads and sequins cannot.
There are many methods of surface embroidery, although for attaching items such as beads and sequins I would recommend trying a crochet method. You simply use a tiny crochet hook to pass the thread though the fabric and when it comes back through, you make the next look and also attach a bead or sequin. This is also known as surface crochet, and can make your embroidery projects very original.
If you are looking for an even more amazing finish to your embroidery projects you could consider adding specialty threads, such as metallic threads or even embroidery threads made of special fibers such as silk or mohair.
Written by Laura Marsh. Did you find the information on beads and sequins with embroidery useful? You can find out more about enhancing your embroidery at http://www.simplyblackwork.com