Beaded Bliss

The beading on my Anna collar is complete!

After a lot of hand stitching, a few unpicked sections, and a ton of seed beads, I am tagging this project "finished"!

After I was happy with the embroidered bits, I basted a few designs on the collar in silk thread.

After covering those basted bits with beads, I started filling in the spaces.

And kept going . . .

and going . . .

until I was happy with the result.

I wanted some of the fabric to show through, it was just a matter of getting it to look balanced with all the beading.

I figured out that my thread had a bad habit of catching on all those three-dimensional clumps of silver beads, so I put those on hold until all of the other beading was complete.

And then the raw edges were turned under.

Which, I have to say, was probably the most exciting part of the project.

To keep the collar closed, I added two hook & eyes to the center back opening.

Although a thimble still feels foreign to my fingers, I managed to spare my fingertips from major injury this time around. But it would certainly be a useful skill to have with all of the hand sewing I do . . .

A duplicate collar was cut out to use as a lining. I suppose I could have used an actual lining material, but since I have plenty of scraps leftover of the silk/cotton jacquard, I figured I would use them.

A line of stay-stitching helped to mark the fold-point - this is so much quicker than marking with a pen! It also keeps the clipped curves from migrating too far.

The lining also allowed me to cover most of the hook & eye bits.

Which is so much prettier than all that metal showing.

The lining was hand stitched into place.

To camouflage the stay-stitching on the collar, a line of beads was stitched along the outer edges.

And that concludes the collar portion of this outfit . . .

Stitching the two hook & eyes on this collar has reminded me that I have to add one to the dress. And then I am truly done with the outfit!