Create a Bead Embroidery Brooch: Lips

1. Introduction: Hey, my name is Catherine and I'm a cowgilryb's entrepreneur, and I've been an artist my entire life. I have facilitated hundreds of large creative workshops in my city. However, COVID changed things a little bit when I had to pivot and teach online. My favorite definition of an artist is the creative adult is just the child who survived. I also call myself a creativity activist because I passionately believed that everyone was crazy to create in their own unique ways. Sometimes you just have to find what that is for you. Today, I will be teaching you beat embroidery techniques you can use to create stunning one of a kind reproach. I've been creating embroidered be brochures for the past four years now. I love challenging myself to create unique to designs that I or someone else will love. In this class, we'll go over basic beat embroidery and stitching techniques you will use to do on your roach. I will also show you variations for getting creative and having extra flair to your designs. Finally, we will pull it all together with finishing techniques and apply a brooch pin back so it's ready to wear. By the end of this class, you will have learned the basic techniques for beat embroidery that you can use to create more roaches, embroider clothing and so much more. Don't worry, no prior knowledge is required for this class. It's perfect for the absolute beginner that has never sewn or made a stitch before. Being so glad you're joining me for this class, let's get started. 2. Supplies: Before we begin, you are going to need the following items. Some felt, black, and ideally a color to match your beads. A backing. You can just use the same felt for this, or you can use leather suede or faux leather. I really like this faux leather. Stuffing. This is chunky wool that I just pull apart. But you can even use cotton balls or anything that you'd like to stuff it with. Beads, ideally two colors. I'm going to be using this one for the lips. Now when it comes to beads, you can see here that these ones aren't all uniform and perfect sizes, they're cheaper beads. But it's okay, especially if you're starting out, things won't look as perfect. But for the main lip area, I am going to be using these. These are higher-quality beads, more expensive, but all uniform in shape and size, and I'll just give a cleaner look afterwards. These are size 10/0 and the color is opal pro red. You'll also be needing some sewing thread, two colors if your lip bead and your final trim bead are going to be different. I highly recommend Gutermann, it's a very high-quality brand. It's cotton thread, it's not going to break, it's not going to fray. If you only have polyester, that's fine too, but this is the one that I recommend. You're also going to need black embroidery thread. You'll also need some brooch pinbacks. You only need one, but I just wanted to show you they do come in gold and silver in varieties of sizes. Some French bullion wire. If you don't have this, you could always just use a coating that's metallic or whatever color you'd like. You're going to need needles, two different kinds if you have, one, a sewing needle which is a smaller denser needle, and then another one, a beading needle which is a thinner, longer shaft, where the whole matches the same width as the shaft for getting the beads all the way down. You're going to need scissors. I highly recommend a separate pair for paper and for embroidery or threads. I can't even tell you how many scissors of my moms that I've ruined because I used her fabric scissors on paper when I was little. A sharpie or a gel pen for tracing our template. Pair of tweezers, not 100 percent necessarily, but definitely recommend it, and of course, our template, yours will look something like this. This is the original one that I drew. Then there's some other stuff that is useful, but it's not necessarily you don't have to have it. Beading trays are also really helpful for keeping your beads contained and lined up and not rolling around on the floor. This little tool here, that's really good for scooping up beads if you drop them or you want to put them back in their containers. Then if you want to get really creative or just use some different things to add accessories to your lips, you could always do fun stuff like tassels. You could add pom poms or pom-pom trim. You can always add some sequins or even add some jewels. 3. Preparing The Template: [MUSIC] First we're going to start with your paper template, make sure that it is printed out. The first thing we're going to do is to cut out the paper with the scissors. Make sure you're using your paper scissors about your fabric [NOISE] or embroidery scissors, it just really does the blade. [MUSIC] We are going to take the black felt and place your cutout on top of it. I like to use a couple of pins when I'm working just to hold it in place. It doesn't move around when I'm tracing or when I'm cutting. Obvious you could use a gel pen or a pencil crayon on the dark felt to outline your lips. Just want to be sure that you can see that off to cut it out. [MUSIC] You see how we have this line down the center? I want to mark that right now as well. Just to give myself a bit of an idea where that's going to be center line. Now, we're going to remove the lips and we're going to cut this out. [MUSIC] Now, depending on what you're using for your backing, you can either use again, the colored felt that you're using for the lips or you can use another swede, leather, whatever you want. I'm using this material. You are going to want to trace this on here and cut one of these up for the backing. You can do it at the end but I like to just get everything cut out in the beginning. Remember this is going to be the back, so make sure you flip this over this way so we don't cut it the wrong way. Here again, we are just going to trace. [MUSIC] Now, we're going to cut out one and two. [MUSIC] We're going to take our black felt. I just want to trace along the lines here. [MUSIC] Then I want to complete my center line. Now, I'm going to take my colored piece of felt. This is again going to be my lip color. I'm going to lay my lips on top here. I'm going to trace them. [MUSIC] Just to see done a decent job. Should all match up here. Perfect. We're ready to clump up these lips. 4. Plump It Up: So we've matched up our lips. I just want to make sure that we extend the line. That center line I can see it about here. I just want to lightly draw it to make sure it's matching up and here. It's going to be important for when we start beading. But for now, we're going to plump up these lips. You want to take your thread, cut off a decent-sized piece of that, and then you want to take your sewing needle. I can show you here the differences between my sewing and my beading needle. The sewing one, shorter, denser, something longer with the eye the same rate as the shaft. So thread this with our thread. Going to tie a knot at the end. I like to do double knots just to make sure that it's secured and it doesn't slip through. We're going to begin with the top part of the lip. We're going to start at the corner and we are going to sow on the lips. Now I'm not going to sew the entire lip on the whole way. I'm going to stop when I'm about three-quarters of the way so we can stuff this. It's still open, we can still get in the corners. We need to make sure that we stuff it. This doesn't have to be pretty, it doesn't have to be perfect. It's just doing a job, adhering the top lip to the back end. [MUSIC] When I get to about the center of the lip, I'm going to start stuffing to make sure that we can get into those pointy areas. Whatever you're using, again, doesn't really matter. Cotton balls, whatever you want. I like to just poke mine in there with my finger. Then I like to take my tweezers. This is where they come in handy, but you could also use your embroidery scissors to poke it in there and pinch it. Pull the tweezers back out. Now, be careful with your scissors that you don't cut her poking holes in anything. But the tips of these are nice and sharp and pointy. They can get into places that the tweezers may be a little bit too tall to get. Really just want to stuff it. Make sure all that's filled in. Then we'll keep going. [MUSIC] There is about good. We don't want the hole to be too small that we can't get the stuffing into it. [MUSIC] The sides a little bit flat. So I want a little bit more. I like to go to close it off up and down a couple of times to make sure that thread is secure. Then on the back, same type of thing. I'll usually just finish with a double knot. Now we have the top part of the lip stuffed. It's time to do the bottom exactly what we just did on the top. [MUSIC] 5. Outlining The Lip: Now we have the middle filled in. What we're going to be doing is we're going to be taking our French Boolean wire or cording, so if you have any cording or just a thicker ropy thing can work. We're going to be outlining the lips, so all along in the middle and then along the edges and it just gives an extra pop or definition. The stuff is really cool. I honestly didn't even know it was called. I didn't look up the name of it and I just love this stuff. It's just so neat. The wires is metallic. I'm going to show you up close here. It is springs almost. All right, so we'll start by measuring the length and then we're going to cut four pieces. If it helps you remember, you could just lay out what goes where on your little lip template so you know what's the top, what's the bottom after you've pre-cut them. We're going to switch back to a sewing needle. I already have mine threaded. I'm going to start with the top inside here. Make sure that goes right to the edge. Then essentially because these are little springs there's little gaps in between them. The thread is very fine. I'm just trying to catch a piece of thread between one of those little springs because once it gets down between it, it will disappear and we're not going to be able to see it. Kind of like that. If you are using according, obviously, there aren't little springs or gaps in-between. I would recommend using a thread that is the same color. If you're using, let's say, a gold or silver metallic cording, get a thread that matches. Otherwise, you're going to see all the stitches along the thread and that's just not going to look as clean. After I finished the top lip inside piece, I've moved along to the bottom lip inside piece. Then I start sewing on the top French Boolean wire. Then I'm going to be moving on to the bottom French Boolean wire. All the same technique, just going along bit by bit, sewing it on, making sure that the thread lands between the spring so that it's hidden. Finally, here you can see that I am just finishing it off. Just tying a few knots to make sure that it stays secure. 6. Filling In The Mouth: [MUSIC] Now we are ready to fill in the black part of the mouth. I'll just make it look a little bit more crisper. We are going to take our embroidery thread, cut off a piece. I'm going to be using a bigger needle here for the thread, so I don't have to separate it and it won't take as long to fill in. So I didn't tie a knot on the back. I'm just going to pull it almost all the way and then we're just going to go down through and back up a couple of times to secure it in place. Then essentially, this is like painting with thread. You can think of it as coloring in a coloring book, we are just going to try to fill in all the black spaces. [MUSIC] 7. Adding Beads: [MUSIC] Now we're ready to add the beads and this is why we've drawn a line down the middle because we're going to be starting in the center and working our way out. That way it just ensures that we get the straightest lines possible and it doesn't end up all skewed. I have switched over to the bling needle again. It's the long skinny one where the eye hole is the same width as the entire pin shaft and I have threaded my needle. The first thing we're going to do is poke our needle up through the bottom here, getting as close to this edge without displacing it. Pull it up through. Then we're going to add as many beads as necessary. I usually just put a bunch on and then I measure how long this is. Probably one more. Perfect. Then going to go right down through here, and we will pull. Now I'm just going to continue that all the way down the right side and then I'll switch and re-thread here and go all the way down the left side. Then we're just going to do the same on the bottom. Here we have the beading complete. Now we are going to be [inaudible] the back. 8. Apply The Backing: Whether you're using the felt or whatever for your backing, we need to match up the pen back with it. I usually have the pin latch on the right-hand side. We're going to mark some holes when I flip it around to the wrong side. This is the way that the pin would sit. Then I'm going to take my sharpie and spot that I think is pretty good. I'm going to mark where I want to cut a hole there. Struggle that down, landmark on this side over here. Now, I always recommend cutting a little bit less than you think you need. Because we want the pin back to stay in place and we don't want any gaping holes so you can see what's behind it. I like to start with a little snip like that. Take this out. Let me just try to push that through. Nice and snug there. On the side also. You can either sow or glue the metal part and this part onto the back of the brooch. For the fabric part, I'm going to be using fabric fusion, which is glue for fabrics, and for the pin part, I like to use a hot glue gun because it's fast and it adheres very quickly. Now, I'm going to apply this fabric fusion just around and I have to hold it in place. Don't want to go too close to the edge. Don't want there to be glue, I'm trying to seal. Then I'll just push it down and we will let that dry. 9. Practice: Blanket Stitch: I want to go over a blanket stitch. I'll make it a little bit easier to understand and see how to do it on this piece of felt. I have two pieces of felts here and some larger beads you can see a bit easier. First things first, when we're doing this on our piece, we want to start in between the two pieces because this is going to hide our knot. I'm just going to thread through here so that puts the end. You can see when we end up sewing it together that knot is going to be hidden creating a cleaner finish. What we're going to do now is we're going to pick up two beads, and then I'm going to come around and pass my needle through there, my two beads are on like that. Then I'm going to take my needle and I'm going to come up through only the second bead. Now, what that is going to do is it's going to make this bead sit straight up like that. You can see there. Now we're going to repeat this process but with one bead. I'm going to pick up a bead, I'm going to pass it through and then I'm going to take the needle and pass it up through that one bead. Now, you can see they're starting to sit down in this little row and face upwards. So it creates a nice little uniform pattern of the beads. Again, I pick up a bead, pass it through and pass the needle up through that bead. One more time, pick up a bead, pass it through and pass my needle up through that one bead. That is going to be how we're finishing the edge of our lips. 10. Finishing Touches: Now we're going to be adhering the backing to the front by doing a blanket stitch with beads. I'm going to be using silver for the trump. What we're going to do is we're going to start by passing the needle through the back, and up through the front there. We're going to trap it in between the backing and the front so the knot gets hidden right there, and you can see. So when the backing covers that up, we're not going to see the knot anymore. We're going to pick up two beads. I'm going to catch the backing and a little bit of the front, we're going to pull those through, and then you're going to take your needle and you are going to pass it up through just one of the beads that's closest to the right-hand side because I am going left to right. You will see once I pull this through, it makes that bead stand straight up. I repeat, then I'm going to pick up one bead. I am going to pass it through the back to the front felt, and then pass my needle up through the bead that I just put on. We're going to just keep repeating this process. To finish it up, I just went up through the first bead that was ever put on and then up through the last one that I strung. Because we don't want a knot to show anywhere, you can just feed the needle, pass it through underneath here a couple of times to just secure the threads, finishing that off, 2, 3, or 4 times, and then just try to cut it really close. And there is your finished lips. 11. Final Thoughts: [MUSIC] Congratulations, you learned how to make a beautiful bead brooch that you can use to decorate your clothing, purses, hats, what have you. Post your final designs, I would love to see your unique take on the lip bead brooch and what colors you used, and how you styled it. If you'd like to learn how to make a different bead brooch, let me know in the discussion below. I can always try to come up with a brand-new template and design for the class and teach you how to do it. If you enjoyed this class, follow me on Skillshare and Instagram. We are hands-on for upcoming classes to keep helping you explore your creativity. Thank you.