Where to start????

[5lilndns]

Wheeww!!! I just finished my first set of beaded hairties. Yeyahhh!!! lol This is also the first time I've used barrettes in the back instead of ties, is this better? I sewed them in instead of just making slits, is this ok? Now onto the yolk. HELP!!!!! I have no idea where to start. Do I bead thru my design on paper then back it with ?? with something stiff n between? What if I don't want to do fully beaded??? Help me please!!!

[OLChemist]

Take a deep breath....

Yoke of what? Are you making a buckskin dress? If so, what nation?

In what stitch are you planning on working? What size beads?

Do you have someone to teach you the other things you must do while preparing a dress?

When I start a dress, first I know what nation and whether or not it is traditional or competition style. I measure the victim -- uh -- future owner and talk color and design. Then I make sketches and a muslin mock up. We try everything on and make sure the design suits.

Then it is shopping time. For a competition style northern dress plan to shell out $500-$1500 for supplies. You'll need 4-6 hides, depending on the size of the deer and the lady. You will need 4-5 kilos of beads. To avoid ugly color variations, you'll need to buy your beads at one time and from one lot. There are misc. things, like sinew, thread, needles (5-10 pkgs of needles), cones, crow beads, brass beads, ribbon, shell. If you are using canvas rather than hide for the top, there is canvas, interfacing, calico, and bias tape to buy.

Then you layout and cut your yoke. Your nation may have things you need to do when you start to cut a dress. I had to make gifts to my teachers before cutting my first dress. Someone will need to teach you these things.

How you lay out your design depends a technique and skill. Some folks draw it all out. Some draw guidelines. Myself... For lane stitch, I mark the lanes and the center lines for design elements. For applique I draw out the design, scan it into the computer, and print it out on iron-on paper.

Then you bead. And bead. And bead. Again your nation may have rules you need to follow while doing this work.

Anyway. If you can tell folks more, there are people who can help you far more.

[wyo_rose]

The barrette in the hairtie thing sounds fine.

As for the yoke: if you don't want to go fully beaded, that's ok too.

If you're using buckskin and it doesn't hold it's shape, you can fuse some stiff canvas to the back with wonderunder. Then baste paper on the front and bead through that. If you want it mega stiff, baste brown paper or pellon interfacing on the back and then put a lining on after you're done beading.

If you're not using buckskin, find some nice material that will serve as the background. What you'll need to do is pretty much make the yoke, then bead it. A nice velvet over a stiff canvas works nicely. If your canvas or other base material isn't that stiff, just use two layers. And of course, using wonderunder to bond them together works slick. Just iron everything from the backside in the case of using velvet.

After you get it beaded, then you can attach fringe (optional) and back it with a light cotton IF you want. I didn't back the first partially beaded yoke I made my daughter but the stitches on the back are hardly noticeable.

Or you can make the yoke, bead it, then attach the backing, sew bias tape over the raw edges and then bead over the bias. But if you're not fully beading it, a contrasting color of bias would make a nice edge.

The pastabilities are endless, really!!!

[5lilndns]

First things first. YOKE not yolk. LOL My bad.

I am making the yoke for my daughters fancy outfit that will match her crown and sasch. We are Ojibwe/Chippewa. Well she's Ojibwe and Potowatomi so she's a Potatoe-Chip. lil joke...

I am using size 9,10 and some 11's in 12 different colors. 3 cuts and the ones with only 1 cut, charlottes??, and an opaque one. The design is floral with a bear.

So I can basically just make the yoke and bead on it, sounds good to me. Is it ok to draw my design on it? I would like to use velvet since her crown is but isn't that hard to bead on?? I hear the beads slip around alot. And wouldn't that be hard to draw on too?? I've made 5 fancy outfits for my girls but this is my first time beading them and I'm going for the gusto. Hairties, barrettes, choker and drop, leggings and yoke. She's earned her crown so I figured she's earned her first beadwork. The hairties I just finished are good for a first ime beader I've been told. I wish I would've started sooner!!!!

Thanks for the info!!!! I really appreciate it. Oh yeah do you put glue on top of the beads after it's done?? Like puzzle glue or something. My daughter suggested that and I had to tell her I'm just not sure. Thanks again!!!!

[wyo_rose]

Blackbear can probably chime in here about beading on velvet. She has some very nice Iroquois style beadwork on velvet.

What I would do is draw the pattern on white paper or tear away stabilizer, baste it on the yoke, then bead over it, and tear the extra off when you're done.

And nope, you don't need any glue when you're done. But it does come in handy for fixing beadwork on things you can't 're-bead'.

And that's okay about the 'yolk'. I didn't even catch it first time! I guess we knew what you were talking about. And you can also call it a cape. I went around for years calling it that thingy-you-wear-in-fancy-and-it-goes-over-your-shawl.

[5lilndns]

Yeah a cape!!! My daughters like all my friends call it a cape, I said ok I'm old. lol Oohhh tear away that stuff really comes in handy. I'll be beading in the New Year tonight!!!

[OLChemist]

Scratch my comments. LOL, I have buckskin dress yoke on the brain and well as the dining room table.

Definately talk to Blackbear, she is an expert. (As is Wyo-Rose who teaches me something new everytime.)

[Blackbear]

Velvet's not hard to bead on at all actually. But if you have large designs that you are putting on the velvet, I would suggest beading them separate and then appliqueing them on the yoke where you want them. Like if you are doing Ojibway florals, do the big parts of the flowers on either a couple layers of the stitch and tear, or on stiff felt... just something stable, trim them up close and then attach them where you need them on the velvet.... and a little clue, if you use just a thin layer of glue, it will hold your flower part in place while you attach it so it's not slipping around. After that you can fill in the smaller stuff , stems and vinework. Also make sure you baste on a heavy duty stabelizer, preferably a stiff one since a fancy dance yoke does'nt necessarily have to conform to your shoulders like an iroquois collar does. If you use a fuseable, you might melt your velvet.

[wyo_rose]

I fused some kind of velvet before and didn't have a problem. Do a trial run first and make sure you're not melting your velvet

[Blackbear]

I don't suggest it to first timers is all... Velvet's so dang expensive ya know... and on something that takes up as large a space as a yoke... it would be heartbreaking to do it and find out you melted or crushed your velvet.

[Czechy]

Another way to bead on velvet is to draw your designs onto fusible interfacing. Fuse that onto the back side of the velvet. And then bead. You only need the design markings for the first outer row of beads in each of the design elements. The rest is fill-in. This way you don't have to worry about messing up the front of the velvet with bits of tear-away paper that did not completely come off or marking chalk or whatever.
After beading, apply more stiffness with a layer of canvas or Pellon if you want it and then attach your lining and edge binding. That's it!

[Blackbear]

The cool thing about the tear away Czechy, is it provides a white background for the bead color to show up bettter, especially if you use translucents. I used tear away on my daughter's leggings and when it got to tiny corner pieces that did'nt tear away right... I used a small pair of tweezers. But if I'm not needing a white background, I use a white charcoal pencil and just draw on the velvet itself. The charcoal pencil will stay there for quite some time, but can be brushed off or just rub it lightly with a damp cloth and wash it away

[5lilndns]

Thanks for the help!!! I'll be starting this weekend after I finish a headband, my first!!! Soooo addicting!!! My daughters learning with me, she's 9. This is a really great bonding time.

[Czechy]

The cool thing about the tear away Czechy, is it provides a white background for the bead color to show up bettter, especially if you use translucents.

Blackbear, you bring up a good point which I forgot about. The white paper background does make all the bead colors brighter.

[Blackbear]

yeah and the stitch and tear is a bit easier than the old fashioned way of cutting out the shape you're going to bead and then sew-tacking it to the velvet and beading over and around it LOL!! I did a picture frame that way and it about drove me nuts!