How to embroider with sequins

Among the most fashionable trends of today, sequins occupy a special place. Many fashion designers love and often use glitter for decoration. With their help, you can create bright embroidery that will transform ordinary clothes. You can decorate your wardrobe with a fashionable item or please your child or friend yourself. Sequin embroidery is easy.

Materials and tools you will need for sequin embroidery

When preparing for embroidery, you need to stock up on the necessary materials and tools. To work you will need the following:

• material for decorating clothes: sequins, beads, glass beads;
• threads: for attaching decorative details and for embroidery;
• scissors;
• needle;
• diagrams of drawings or patterns.

Methods for sewing sequins

You can attach sequins to fabric and combine them into a beautiful pattern in different ways.

How to sew on a single sequin

Each sequin, which is a small circle with one hole and becomes an element of the design, must be attached to the fabric.

Options for fastening a single part:

• Open stitch: 2 or 4 stitches are visible on the surface of the sequin.
• Decorative seam: 8 stitches are visible on the surface.
• Closed seam: the stitch is hidden in a bead, which becomes an additional decoration of the sequin, making it voluminous.

Advice! For a decorative seam, you can choose threads that are brighter or contrast with the color of the sequins.

Sequin placement options

For embroidery, most of the sequins are attached to the fabric not individually, but in groups. This way you can create small elements of the picture.

The most common methods for arranging sequins are as follows.

Connection in a row

To create a straight or wavy line of glitter on the fabric, they are secured end-to-end. The work is done with a “back needle” seam, the direction of the row is from right to left. In this case, on each sequin you can make one open stitch on the right. You can also supplement the work with one more stitch. This will create a continuous line of thread on the glitter.

Advice! A row of sequins is used to create outlines or decorative lines in a design.

Triangle

Three sparkles can be connected in the shape of a triangle. The “back needle” seam is made so that 2 stitches appear on the surface of each decorative part with a common beginning in the central hole. They should form the corner of a triangle. Upon completion of the work on the sequins, you will get an equilateral triangle of threads.

Square

4 sequins placed in 2 rows of 2 sequins each form a square. If you sew each one with two stitches connected at right angles, then another square will appear on the surface of the shiny square - made of threads.

Technique for placing sequins: overlay (“fish scales”, mosaic).

Having created the outline of the design, you need to fill the fabric inside it. For this, three main embroidery techniques are used.

Rows

Sequins are sewn in rows so that when creating each next row, the central holes are located above the centers of the already sewn sequins.

Mosaic

The difference between this technique is that, starting from the 2nd row, the sequins are placed so that the central hole is located above the junction of two sequins from the previous row.

Overlay ("fish scales")

To perform the work using the overlay technique, each row of sequins is sewn with a hidden seam. With it, each glitter half covers the one that is already attached to the fabric. This way you can hide the stitch that holds the bottom sequin to the fabric.

Important! When purchasing material for work, it is necessary to take into account that decorating clothes with embroidery with the effect of fish scales requires more glitter than when embroidering in rows or mosaics.

Combination with beads

Another decorative material - beads - helps to make embroidery more varied.

Reference! Beads not only decorate clothes and add additional shades to the embroidery, but also make the design more voluminous.

Options for using beads

For a closed seam

The beads help hide the thread that is used to sew the sequins. The bead is placed on a thread over the sequin, after which the thread is brought out to the wrong side of the fabric through the center of the sequin.

For vertical placement

Alternating sequins and beads is used to create a row in which the sequins are held vertically.

To complement the pattern

Beads are suitable for applying finer lines to a design, for example, the stamens of a flower, buds on branches, insect antennae, etc. You can also use beads to outline the future pattern.

Combination of sequins with decorative seams

You can embroider a beautiful pattern on clothes using sequins alone.But if you combine them with embroidery with decorative threads, the design will “play out” and look most elegant and advantageous. For this combination, embroidered elements are first applied to the clothing. For example, for a floral pattern, they start with embroidering branches, stems, small leaves, curls, etc.). After this, the work is complemented with flowers made from sequins and beads.

Useful tips for embroidery with sequins

• In order for embroidery to truly decorate clothing, you need to use a diagram to make sure that the pattern will be beautifully placed on the clothing and will not fall on folds or additional details (pockets, folds).
• Careful selection of colors and the use of matte glitter along with shiny ones will help create a stylish, not flashy item.
• When working with sequins, you need to run your hand over them. This will prevent them from bending and will prevent them from sliding across the surface of the fabric.
• Clothing with sequin embroidery requires extra care when ironing. Clothes are ironed carefully, from the wrong side, without steaming. This will preserve the high-quality appearance of decorative parts for a long time.

Sequin embroidery is an opportunity to show creativity and creativity, please yourself with a fashionable item and surprise others with your handicraft.