It is around 10 months since I started making my beaded bag - for the express purpose of using on my wedding day. I finished it two weeks ago.
I didn't spend the whole 10 months working on it... I've guesstimated that it has taken me around 300 hours. So, 300 hours, about £200 of beads and I'm left with something I'm immensely proud of. I can't wait to walk down the aisle to marry my wonderful man, and I can't wait to show off my sparkly bag, either!
This has been the largest project I've attempted, it's been challenging, and I now know I wouldn't attempt a project like this in the same way again... I won't go through the ins and outs of what I'd do differently, but there are a few things that would have made it easier.
I think the most surprising part of this project was how much thread it consumed... 5 whole reels of KO!
The really special piece on this bag is a cab made by my good friend, and wonderful artist/designer Donna Sanders with our names, and the date of our wedding on.
The bag is predominantly stitched in boucle stitch, which gives the depth to the bag. It also adds to the weight! This little beauty weighs well over half a pound.
The strap for the bag is made with bead crochet - which gives it real flexibility and strength, it can also be tucked into the bag to use it just as a clutch bag.
I'm looking forward to sharing pictures of the big day with you all, so you can see all the little beaded accessories I have made.
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So, another update on the beaded bag... I've not posted for ages, but I've not done anything to my bag for ages either; I'm catching up on what I've done over the past month or so!
So, I've moved on from beading around the sparkles, to filling in the spaces in between, and I have branched out and tried a new stitch... boucle stitch. It is essentially a lot of little picots, so it adds amazing texture. Yes, it uses more beads, and is going to make the handbag exceptionally heavy, but I think you'll agree it's worth it!
This is the first shot which actually gives you an idea of what the finished bag will look like. Full of sparkles, fresh-water pearls, and other shiny bits and pieces. I've now decided that I won't be having flowers on my wedding day, and this is going to be in their place.
On to the Pay it Forward...
On the blog of a very good friend, she offered the chance for three lucky people to receive a handmade gift from her in the next 365 days, on the condition that they offered people the same chance, either on their blog or facebook. I was lucky enough to be one of the three... so I am giving you the chance to receive something handmade from me. The first three people to comment on this post saying they would like to take part in this will be the recipients.
The handmade thing doesn't have to be jewellery, it could be a handmade card, a painting or sketch, a cake... anything really, as long as it's made by you!
So, it's been a couple of weeks since I posted the progress on my beaded bag... I have made a bit of progress!
First off, I've removed one of the chatons that I had initially attached... I just didn't like the way it looked. I knew that I wanted to make the rest of the chatons stick up less from the surface of the bag... so I have developed a new way of beading them! Instead of making a quick bezel for the chaton, and sewing it onto the backing, I've started doing more beading around them, then sewing the whole component on.
This component is an 8mm chaton, surrounded by several rows of circular peyote, then a ring of 4mm bicones, in 4 different shades of white and crystal... then a few rows of embroidery in gilt-lined opal.
This is possibly my favourite component on the whole bag... a 12mm rivoli , with a ring of 3mm bicones in rose-water opal around the edge of it
This element is super-sparkly, surrounded by antique rose swarovski bicones, with little gold size 15s highlighting the end of the crystals.
A light-colarado topaz chaton is at the centre of this element, with plenty of rose-water opal bicones surrounding the circular peyote piece holding the chaton in place.
The chaton in this piece is surrounded by tiny 2mm pearls and dusky pink size 11s. Somehow, it looks to be spiraling out from the centre of the chaton, which I really like.
These are the remaining sparkles that I have left to attach to the backing, two of them have already been beaded around, but the others have yet to be started.
I did go on a little sparkle-buying splurge, and bough some more crystals to go on the bag - two pale gold swarovski pearl cabs, some 24k gold plated fire-polish crystals, and some 3mm crystals in rose-water opal and crystal AB. This bag is going to be so bling by the time I finish with it!
This is my current progress... I really need to get going with it - every time look at it, I realise just how much beading there is to do between the sparkles!
At the moment, I am planning my wedding. I'm lead to believe it's quite a stressful thing to do...
We would like our wedding to be as quirky as us, and part of that is basing it on a handmade theme. We would like as much as possible to be handmade and individual, preferably made by us, or people we care about.
One thing I decided I would like to make for the wedding is a small beaded clutch bag to keep my essentials in... such as my asthma inhaler. I've never made anything like this before, and I've certainly never attempted a project this big. I thought it would feel daunting, but I'm so excited about it, I'm enjoying it without feeling worried about the scale of it.
I've seen some bead embroidered bags before on the internet, and from what I can work out, they've been based on an existing bag. The way I'm making mine is to use a plastic mesh bag frame as the base. I've drawn the shape out on some blackout curtain lining, and I am embroidering onto that.
The first step was to decide on a rough design for the bag... I knew I wanted it to be mainly white, but with hints of gold and pale pink. I also knew I wanted a lot of sparkle in it, so I put together a selection of swarovski rivolis and chatons in crystal, crystal AB, rose-water opal and light colarado topaz. I scattered these over the bag template and shifted them around until I had a distribution I was happy with... and then I marked which stone went where.
I've started beading bezels around the swarovski stones, then sewing them onto the backing and embroidering around them.
I am so excited with the progress so far... but I know there is a very long way to go. I will keep updating photos on this so you can see the progress.
