There are many design elements that add costs to your wedding gown. Lace, for example, will add money to your wedding gowns price, however, beading is what will really make the price of your wedding dress skyrocket. Fortunately, you can do your own beading and save a ton of money. In fact, you can save thousands of dollars on your wedding gown by doing the beadwork yourself. The trick is to practice your beading technique on cheap material first before working on your wedding dress, and giving yourself plenty of time to turn your inexpensive wedding gown into a couture beaded gown.
Learning to Bead
The first step in the process of beading a wedding gown is to learn how to do basic bead work. When you add beading to a wedding gown there are a few basic techniques that you will need to learn. You will need to learn basic knot work and you will also need to learn flourish bead work.
Basic knot work is where you attach beads to your material by passing your beading needle from the backside of the fabric through to the front side, pass it through your bead, pass it through the material and tie a knot on the backside of the material to secure your bead. This will secure your bead flat against the material. The key here is to create only a small gap between the two ends of the string so that when you pull the knot tight it doesn’t pucker your material.
If you want to add flourishes to your beadwork, or three dimensional shapes with your beads, then you will need to learn how to drape your beads. This is really fairly simple. You start by passing the needle through the backside of your material and pull it out the front side of the material in the position that you want your flourish to start. You then add your beads in the order they will hang. For example you can create a basic scallop by stringing a seed bead, two bugle beads and a seed bead on your thread before passing the needle back through the material. You will need to space your needle entry and exit points far enough part that the beads hang in a scallop shape. To secure your beadwork you will need to create a slip knot on the backside of your material where the beading shape ends.
You have two options when it comes to beadwork on your wedding gown. Your first option is to create the beadwork directly on your wedding gown. If this is your first attempt at beadwork this can be risky. However, if you are confident in your skills then this is a viable option.
Your second option is to sew a sheer overlay for your wedding gown and to do the beadwork on the overlay. This is a great option for beginners because if you make a mistake you can always just remove the beads and start over again on another overlay. This would be much more affordable than trying to replace your original wedding gown. It also gives you the option of removing the overlay during your wedding reception so that you can dance without getting overheated.
