Tutorial : Fabric Covered Beads

This tutorial will show you how to make beautiful little fabric covered beads. I wrote a fabric necklace tutorial last year which has proved very popular and this one is even simpler, with no sewing involved! You could make a pretty necklace or bracelet to match an outfit, use them to decorate a special present or even add them to a mobile.

To make these sweet little beads you will need a selection of fabrics, scissors, beads, a darning needle, some glue, and a cocktail or kebab stick.

You will only be using small pieces of the fabric so larger prints will show off their colours rather than the patterns. Small florals work perfectly and as you start making these beads you will decide what kind of fabric you like to use. I have experimented with chiffon and silk before, both look beautiful but can fray quite a bit.

I always use wooden beads because I like using natural materials and they have a lovely weight to them. The beads I used in this tutorial are 1.5cm and have a large hole in the middle. This makes it much easier to wrap the fabric around. I don’t use coloured beads because I don’t want the colour to show through my fabric. Fast Tack glue is my glue of choice because it sticks wood, paper and fabric, dries quickly and is non-toxic.

The first step is to cut your fabric into strips. My beads are 1.5cm tall, my strips were approximately 0.5cm thick and 40cm long. It is perfectly fine to work with smaller pieces of fabric because the lengths can easily be joined.

Next, take your first bead and squeeze a small blob of glue inside.

Take your fabric strip and pop it into the hole in your bead, so that it rests on top of the glue. Use your kebab stick to push the fabric down into the glue.

Now pop this to one side to dry.

When the glue has dried, thread the end of your fabric strip onto your darning needle. Take the needle through the centre of the bead so that the fabric gets wrapped around. Take care the the fabric doesn’t get twisted inside and that it slightly overlaps the previous strip. Keep winding until your bead is completely wrapped.

When you get to this point, cut your fabric strip so that there is enough fabric to tuck inside your bead. Pop another blob of glue just inside your bead and using the kebab stick again, press firmly into place.

I hope that you enjoy making lots of beautiful fabric covered beads from this tutorial!

If you fancy making your own fabric covered beads then you can buy most of the supplies from Amazon. If you purchase anything through the links in my post you are helping to support my blog as I get a small referral fee from Amazon. Thank you!

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