Condo Blues: beading
Showing posts with label beading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beading. Show all posts

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Renaissance Noble Dress Project Part 3: Princess Dress Reveal!

I blogged about designing a new Elizabethan Nobility Dress to perform with Husband at Renaissance Festivals. This project was harder than any other costuming project I’ve done. I like the finished dress for the most part, but I don’t love it as much as I do the costume it replaces. There are a bunch of mistakes, and the bodice fit (among other things) needs tweaking which is why I haven’t shown you the finished project.

But I promised you a DIY renaissance festival princess dress and that you shall have, warts and all.
I started with a sketch after pouring over my favorite Elizabethan costuming books working backwards by buying the fabric first and coming up with a dress design second. I like to work the other way around.


Disclosure: affiliate links appear in this post for your convenience.

I started with the overskirt and underskirt (forepart) first. I attempted hand embroidering the brown velvet trim but didn’t liker my test pieces, not to mention  that kind of hand embroidery means an extra year for construction I didn’t have.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

7 Ways to Make Magnetic Embroidery Needle Minders

If you do a lot of hand sewing, cross stitch, embroidery, beading, or other needle crafts, you know eventually you will play the I put my work down and where did my needle go? game.

Slipping the needle into the fabric works to keep track of your embroidery needle but can leave permanent holes in certain fabrics. In that case you can keep track of your needles with the power to science: a magnetic needle minder!

Basically, a needle minder is a magnet that holds your needle and is glued to the back of a fairly thin decorative piece on the top side of the work in your embroidery hoop that is held in place on back side by another magnet.

DIY Needle Minder Tutorial


I am hand sewing beads on a super size beading project – an Elizabethan under skirt. Since I am using a small beading needle on such a large and busy fabric, a magnetic needle minder will help me keep track of and find such a slender needle when I take a break.

Let’s make a needle minder!

 Pin this tutorial for later!