Hi this is Julie with Beadaholique.com and today I'm going to teach you how to do
Soutache bead embroidery and I'm actually going to teach this to you in a series of videos
because there's quite a few different techniques involved here and want to
break it into more manageable sections
but here we have this earring and I'm going to show you how to make it from start to
finish
in terms of the tools they're going to need you're main tool is going to be a pair of scissors
you're going to use this for all the actual Soutache work
and a beading needle. I like as thin of an needle as
possible so this is a size twelve
you can do it with
a larger needle but I do like a narrow needle myself
when you start adding your findings like dangles and your earring hook
you're going to need a pair of flush cutters
a wire looping plier or a round nose. Whatever you choose. I like the wire looping
and a chain nose plier
so those you're going to need
at the end of the project
now for your supplies you're going to need some nymo thread
I have it here to match my color scheme. It's really important actually that your
thread does match Soutache because you might end up seeing little bits of it
in your design
and I've started by cutting a length of thirty six inches so one yard
tying a little knot at the end, trimming the thread close to the knot
and placing it on a needle
for this particular project you're going to need three colors of Soutache
I suggest that you carefully select your colors because that really is going to
have quite an impact on your design and the more vibrant and cohesive of a color
scheme
I think the better the design ends up looking with all the swirls involved
I've got three different colors and if you're not familiar with Soutache I'm going to show
you something
let's see if it shows up with this color
it does fray at the ends so you have to be aware of that
you've got this channel down the middle. You've got this core
and that's going to be what your stitching into. You're not going into for
most part you're not going to be stitching on the top part
stitching
in this core and the Soutache is gonna be on end
it's not going to be flat like this
it's going to be up
like this
this is something to keep in mind
there's a lot of colors of Soutache, even metallics which is fun to work into the
design
and what you're going to be forming the Soutache around
are these great round beads
I picked six millimeter round beads
and four millimeter beads
you do not have to keep with those sizes. For this project that's what I choose
you can use whatever size you'd like
do the edging
we have some 11/0 seed beads. These are Tohos
and then the backing
is Ultra Suede
again I picked a color that coordinated
we've some little accent seeds beads and those are 8/0 Toho
and for the findings we have an earring hook
you have some jump rings. These are closed jump rings. You want to use closed
jump rings. You're going to be actually stitching
the jump ring into the Soutache which is what we're gonna do and I've
got a couple head pins
so to begin
go ahead
cut your thread, put it onto your needle and tie that knot
now we need to cut
six inches of each color of our Soutache we're going to be using all three colors together
six inches
make a cut
you can get a lot different projects out these three cards of
Soutache
six inches
cut
and the final one
we are ready to go
the way I've lined these up is I chose to do
lightest color in the middle surrounded by the two darker ones
soon again we're not going to lay these flat, lay them on their side
and see you see that middle lighter color
between the two darker ones
making sure that their ends line up
go ahead
it's a little tricky
making this stand upright
and it helps if I actually
sandwich and bunch them like this. Pinch a little bit on the
top
not that they flatten out just to make sure that they're all even
bring my ruler back, I wanna know where the three-inch point is
not quite there yet
that looks to be three inches right there
make our first stitch
take your needle
this is the interior color
go through the interior color
right along that channel right where the
threads come together to form a V
go all the way through
all three the
Soutache ribbons and come out in the middle of the channel
on the outer one
I find that the first couple stitches are actually the most difficult in this
entire process just because these are all wobbly
not being held together very well at this point
go through our entire stack
of cords
and work our way to our left
now we're gonna make her first shaping stitch
go about a quarter of an inch
over to the left
in the middle of that
cord, just place my needle all the
way through my stack
go all the way down
go over about
one-sixteenth of an inch
like so
going through the middle
push your needle through
before you pull it through make sure you have it where you
want it
sometimes you have to pull your needle back out and repush it through just to make sure it's
right
up and through again
now move down
make sure that these are lined up
another quarter of an inch
and I'm estimating here
all the way through
so the shaping stitch on the interior is one sixteenth
and on the exterior
is a quarter of and inch
I'm going to add the first bead. Without beads
Soutache doesn't have anything to form around
take one of my six millimeter beads
slide it down
to the bottom
so now we're gonna wanna make it so that the Soutache folds around the bead
do that
take your needle
and placing it
about where our knot is
which was the center of the Soutache ribbons
go all the way through
coax the ribbon
fold around
I have a gap. I'm not too happy about that
this is something you're going to have to do until you get the hang of it
or even when you get a hang of it
take out that stitch
note where I had it, I had it just a little to the left of my knot
and I don't want that gap in there. I rather fix that now
then to have to deal with that later
easy as just taking the needle off thread
rethreading it
and now I'm going to go ahead
place this a little bit further away from my knot
again on the left hand side
towards the bead
go all the way through. Let's see if that looks better
do not be afraid to take out your stitches if your unhappy with how
something looks
especially when you're first learning
I'm much happier with that
now I feel I can go onto the next step which is going to be to create three more
shaping stitches
to the right hand side
of where my bead is or the right hand side of what was the center of my
soutache to begin with
go over a quarter of an inch
in the middle of the ribbon again
all the way through all three
and pull
I'm not pulling terribly tight. I'm not trying to make
the ribbon
kink up or distort in anyway. I'm just keeping the stack together
Pinch it a little on top just to make sure that all my
cords
are nice and even
you call these braids, you can call these cords or ribbons
I've heard them being referred as a bunch of different ways
the most common term I hear is braid
you need to do one more. I did one down. One up
do one more down
approximately a quarter of an inch
where my thread exits
and
now those are sticking together nice and even
so now I need to secure the end around the bead
I'm going to do the
same thing I did before
where I'm going to want to curve it
like so
to do that
by taking the needle
going up
through my bead
through all my
braids
and pulling the needle through
pinch it to see how that looks
there's a little bit of a gap right here
at this stage I'm okay with that because I'm going to go ahead and
pinch my soutache together in the next step
which is going to get rid of that gap
our needle is out here at the top
that's not where I want it. I want it to be exiting at the bottom again so I'm just
going to make a stitch
right through my braids
right through my bead
come out
the other side
it's
not terribly secure at this point and that's what we're going to do in the next video and I
think that is a good place to stop for this first video, we've gone ahead and
we've
learned how to do a shaping stitch and how to insert a
bead and in the next video I'm going to show you how to do a two-sided join
be able to bring this closer together. Make that nice and snug
as you can see here
and then we'll work on adding the other swirls as well. Go to www.beadaholique.com to purchase beading supplies and to get design ideas!