Interim...

I'm in mid dress construction at present, so thought I'd take the opportunity for a break by showing you some beading.

I love beading. It's something to do with the repetitive nature of it and that it can take a long time to do. The feeling that 'this is what I shall be doing' for the next few days is quite comforting; probably something to do with the fact that I can sit still and don't need to pack up to start something else, which is often how my day runs when I'm working on other parts of gowns.

While I bead I like to listen to story tapes. While beading this dress I listened to The Clothes They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett, The Laying On Of Hands by Alan Bennett, By The Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie and several Just William stories - I am loving the impression of Violet Elizabeth as read by Martin Jarvis!

This beading is placed around the waist of the dress and when finished, the beaded section is about 10cm wide. The completed look is designed to look scattered, but believe me there is a rigid design in there that I'm following!

You may be able to see the tacking stitches which are the marker for the edge of the beaded section. As with all of my dresses, the beading is something that can be altered to suit the individual taste of the client, so pearls could be used or I could introduce a colour, for example.



It's difficult to see in my pictures, but the 2 main types of beads I'm using are crystals and sequins with a tiny glass bead to centre them down. Since photographing this progress, I've finished the whole dress, so I'll show you that shortly with some more close ups of the finished beaded detail.