| Bead A Beaded Button Cover |
I really like the idea of beaded button covers as jewelry. They can be worn with any outfit that has the right size buttons on it and they can go at the throat, shirt pocket, cuff, lots of possibilities! Plus, a beaded button cover can be attached to clothing made of fabrics that don't tolerate pins very well.
Button cover blanks come in several sizes, the ones used here are 18mm. They fit your standard shirt button. Look for them in craft, bead, and sewing stores. They look like this when open:
Start by covering both button covers with felt. Cut a strip of felt 3/16ths of an inch wide and 2 and 1/2 inches long, and a circle 3/4 of an inch wide. Glue the strip around the edge of the button cover with E6000 then glue the circle on top. The circle should fit just inside the outside strip. You don't have to use felt, but keep in mind that the designs featured here take the extra width of the felt into account and they might be too big if you use thinner fabric. I like the felt because it gives the finished cover a little bit of cushion and it's cheap and pretty near everything sticks to it. Plus, it doesn't fray!
For the first cover pictured I used hematite and bronze colored Delicas and bronze freshwater pearls. I know the hematite looks silver in the pic, but it isn't! Use Flat Round Peyote stitch to work the following graph. As shown in the graph, stop increasing after the 3rd increase round. This will cause the beadwork to bend at the right place to fit the top and sides of the button cover.
Once you have completed the peyote portion of the button cover, you need to attach the dangles. The three center beads marked with white dots show where to start. Add one bronze bead to each marked bead by leaving the marked bead, picking up a bronze bead and going back into the marked bead from the other side. Weave to the next marked bead and repeat. Once you've added all three bronze beads run through them once with your thread. Now pick up 3 hematite Delicas, one bronze freshwater pearl and one bronze Delica. Skip the bronze Delica and go back through the rest. Re-enter the bronze bead you left from the other side and continue to the second of the 3 bronze beads you added in the previous step and add a second dangle in the same way. Add one more dangle to the last bronze bead and you are done. Glue the whole shebang to the button cover and you are really done.
For the second cover I used transparent peach luster seed beads, blue gold-luster Magatamas, and one 6mm round cobalt blue bead. Be sure to use a color of felt that goes with your beads for this one. Blue preferably. First work two rows of right-angle weave to fit around the sides of the cover. This feature shows how to connect the ends to make it tubular.
The top portion of the cover is worked in netting. With your thread exiting one of the beads along the top edge of your ring of RAW, pick up 3 beads and go through the second bead over in the direction your thread is traveling. Continue around the circle adding three beads in between each first and third bead.
When you get back to where you started, go through the first two beads of the first 3 beads set you added. If there is an extra bead between the last 3 bead stitch and the first, don't panic, just skip it and enter the first stitch as usual. Now pick up 2 beads and go through the center bead of the next set of 3 beads. Continue around the circle adding 2 beads between each center bead in the previous row.
When you get back to where you started go through the first bead of the first set of two you added. Pick up 3 beads and thread your needle under the thread between the two beads in the second two bead set. Go back through the 3rd of the 3 beads you picked up to trap the thread. Pick up two beads and go under the thread between the next two beads then go back through the second bead you picked up to trap the thread. Continue around adding two beads, going under the thread between the two bead sets in the previous row and going up through the second bead you added until you get to the last stitch. For the last stitch, pick up one bead and go down through the first of the 3 beads you added in the first stitch. Continue through the second bead of the first stitch to complete the row.
Now add one more row by placing a bead in every other space formed by the beads that stick out in the previous row. When you get back to the beginning pick up one peach bead, your 6mm bead and one more peach bead. Skip the peach bead and go back through the rest. Re-enter the bead you left from the opposite side. Then go back up through all three beads and down through the 6mm again. Pick up a seed bead and enter a bead one third of the way around the circle. Go back up through the bead you added, the 6mm and the seed bead on top, then down through the 6mm and the new seed again. Re-enter the bead you left from the opposite side. Go up through the new seed, the 6mm and the seed on top and back down through the 6mm. Pick up one more seed and enter a bead equidistant from the first two you attached to then go up through the new seed, and loop through the rest once more.
Now weave your thread down to the top row of right angle weave. Position your thread so that it is coming out of the bottom of the second bead clockwise from the top of one of your RAW stitches. Pick up one Magatama and go down through the bead directly below the one you left. Weave counter-clockwise through the next two beads in the stitch you just entered. Pick up another Magatama and go up through the bead directly above. Weave clockwise two beads, pick up another Magatama and go through the bead directly below. Continue adding Magatamas in this fashion until you have completed the circle.
Now add one final row at the bottom edge of the cover by adding a bead in between the bottom beads of each RAW stitch.
Glue the beadwork to the cover around the edges only.
These are only two of the millions of possible ways to bead a button cover. Try embellishing with loops, stick fringe, fringe on one side, add peyote ruffles, attach a daffodil, leave them plain, but most of all, have fun!
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