Fabric Beads - From Susan

Making the fabric beads with glue was not a good thing for me because I'm so messy. So I devised a way to make fabric beads that I think is a lot simpler than gluing. And it works great with the silk from men's ties which is definitely too thin to glue.

Go to Wal-Mart or Hobby Lobby and buy a yard of Wonder-Under. It is the paper-backed fusible web. It's not too expensive and one yard will make many, many triangles for your fabric beads. If you've never used it before be sure you feel it carefully so you know which side the web is on and which side is the paper backing.

Fuse it down by ironing it on to your men's tie silk or to cotton (or maybe even thin paper, like rice paper). Don't peel off the backing yet; draw your triangle grid on it, cut out your triangles and then peel off the backing as you do each bead. The easiest way to get the paper backing off is to fold a corner of the fused backing down, fabric side out, paper side in. When you let go, the fabric will spring back up faster than the paper and you can start the separating there.

You must be using something metal for your dowel/roller. I used a metal knitting needle. An awl might work, it just needs to be something that won't melt from heat. A wooden dowel might work but you'll probably wind up fusing your bead to the wood.

Starting the bead is always hard, especially with the silk. I sat the iron up and pressed the start of the bead to the tip of the iron to start the fusing, then rolled a little more and touched it again. Sometimes I could actually just roll the bead down the surface of the iron, fusing as it rolled. With the cotton, after I got it started I could put it down on the ironing board and just gently roll it up with the tip of the iron. It was VERY VERY fast to do. Also, because you are fusing you can fuse in wrapping yarns/thread near the end and they'll be anchored in place.

In the picture the brown-yellow beads are made with the tie silk (buy them at Salvation Army, half price on Wednesdays, thrown them in the washer and wash them, then pick them apart). Because the fabric is so thin I recommend a very long triangle, as much as 8-9", if you want to get the rounded effect in the center.