Handmade Beaded Headpiece for Irish Dancing
I am not by any means a pro in the field of bead embroidery or any embroidery for that matter. I’ve done it on and off since I was a little girl but I’ve never focused exclusively on it. However, I wanted to share this project because it was rather special to me. I made this piece for my little girl’s first Irish dancing feis (competition) and I wanted her to have a keepsake of that special day.
Hand beaded headpiece
I started by searching online images of Celtic symbols, drawings or graphics that were embroidery friendly. I then printed it off and transferred it to a piece of interface (the material used in sewing) from there, I started the beading process. I combined Swarovski crystals and beads of different shapes as well as glass beads in teal, orange and white, which are the colours of my daughter’s academy (also similar to the colours of the Irish flag). I didn’t particularly keep a pattern but since the graphic is sort of an infinite loop, I beaded sections of each colour following the continuous lines of the graphic in order to give more definition to the design.
Once it was all beaded, I cut the edges and adhered it to a piece of teal fabric, I placed a heavy book on top and waited until the next day to cut the excess fabric.
That was pretty much it. I had previously made a puffy headband using the same teal fabric, so the beaded piece would blend in when placing it on top of the headband. I wanted the piece to be removable though, so I decided not to sew it to the headband, instead, I used pins or as you can see in the photo (bellow) of the actual competition day, where my daughter is wearing it alone with the help of clear elastics to hold it in place.
Like I said, I am not an expert. Perhaps with a little more time and a bit of research, this project would’ve looked more polished but I was actually quite happy with the results. The most important thing is that my little girl was so excited to compete and she really enjoyed her day, which in return made me very happy.
I hope you enjoy this project and if you would like more details, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
XOXO
Monica
“The creative adult, is the child who survived”_ U. Le Guin
