Thread: making fringe question *updated pics on 2nd page*

I've got this gold and silver in the works



and I think I'm going to have to make my own fringe. The gold beads that I'm using are more of a 24 karat gold shade, so it's going to be hard to match it.

So I'm thinking about making my own icicle fringe (a la Pharaonix)... should I do all gold, or gold with silver ends? I haven't seen any 2 tone icicle fringe, so maybe it wouldn't look right.... what do you think?

And should i bead it on a ribbon before attaching it to the bra and belt, or just attach it directly onto the costume?

any opinions/thoughts would be helpful :)

I love fringe. I usually go crazy making fringe for all my babies. That being said, my most recent costume was an "icicle-like" fringe monster. I transitioned from green to copper down to silver at the very ends (got tons of compliments).

I think that with your design (it's gorgeous btw) you have to do the gold and silver together. Otherwise the silver designs on the belt will look out of place. I think that 2-tone icicle fringe looks great AS LONG AS the lighter color (in your case) silver is at the bottom. It emphasizes movement by picking up light and drawing the audience's eyes/attn there. I think it would look heavy or almost backward to put the gold at the bottom. But that's my opinion...

That being said, what's the worst that could happen? Make a few strands, like 2-3, and see how it looks. If you decide you don't like it, get rid of it. You wasted what, 10 minutes?

Another option would be to interlace loops. I am working on a peacock and hematite colored loops on my current costume. I am alternating the colors within each loop. That could be another option but I'm not sure if your colors are too similar and then it would just look like a mess...

Basically, I think you'd be fine with icicles but trial and error is part of the fun!

Also realized that I didnt comment on the attachment of fringe:

I was taught to put it onto a grossgrain ribbon and attach but have noticed that many costumes such as Bellas and Sims attach straight to the costume. The ribbon idea is only great if you want to travel with your fringe (while making) or easily detach and switch out. I personally now only sew fringe straight onto the costume but MUST grab the pellon/interfacing underneath. Otherwise you are asking for the weight of the fringe to rip it out of the fabric.

Also I see your belt isn't 100% done but might I suggest beading the bottom hem of the belt. It will hide the fringe and give it a more polished look.

Just my 2 cents tho! Good luck. and it's GORGEOUS!

What about silver fringe with scattered round, gold accent beads at different heights in the fringe?

I think it is worth the time to make the fringe on narrow ribbon or crochet chain, because if the rest of the costume doesn't work out for some reason, the fringe can be easily salvaged. If you're planning to go that route, and put trim on top of the fringe to hide the ribbon, remember to leave a teeny bit of extra slack in the fringe to accommodate this.

Thanks, Nuriya :) ... I do plan to bead along the bottom as well. I'm waiting for a supply of silver beads and rhinestone chain to come in before working on it again. I'm already so in love with this costume, and it's going straight to the top of my fave's list.

Tourbeau... I thought about the silver with gold accent beads, but I can't wrap my mind around it. I think I want more gold. I also thought about alternating gold and silver (vertically) and in a zig zag pattern.... and straight gold fringe with accents of silver layered on top.

*sigh* so many ideas and not sure which way to turn.... though I'm still leaning towards the icicle style.

clearly you have a good aesthetic eye. so just roll with it! I have to say not a single costume I "envisioned" turned out exactly the way I wanted. Everything changes a smidge... but thats part of the fun! Hope you post pix of the finished product!

This is gonna be gorgeous - already is!

OK my opinion on fringe: should definitely be done separately from the belt, i.e. make individual "strings" of fringe to your desired lengths then crochet them together to form the fringe.

When you sew it on, as Tourbeau mentioned, it is very important to leave some slack so it will move well and also not be under too much stress.

Now: the reasons for this are:

a: speed. It's much faster to sew a fringe this way. Sewing directly on to the costume is a pain in the kazoo. The fringes are always getting stuck on things, the threads get caught on the jewels, arrrggghhhhhh.

b. glass beaded fringes get beat up and you will have to replace the fringes eventually. This way you just snip the beat up stuff and replace, no biggie.

You can always add fringes to directly to the bra/belt here and there for accents.

There is another way to do fringes, if you are using seed beads rather than bugles you can string a huge amount together in a very long strand then loop it on to the costume, tacking it down as desired. This can look great. It is also a problem, if anything breaks the whole costume is likely to be damaged and you have a major repair on your hands. I've seen problems like this with a Bella.

Finally as to gold/silver together, I would put the silver on the ends as suggested also, or, intermix the colors. This can be patterned or random.

Also, there are various colors of gold (or topaz) bugle beads and seed beads and you can play these off each other. Some golds are dark and rich and some are pale and silvery and the combinations can look really rich.

I don't think you can go wrong, especially if you have crystals on the belt because those pick up a lot of light and reflect back a lot of different colors. So you'll always look amazing and be able to wear this with a lot of different colors.

If you use both gold and silver beading that does give you the option of wearing it with both gold and silver fabrics which makes it super versatile.

I can't wait to see pix of this when it's done!

thanks, Sophia :)

i like your suggestion of mixing gold tones... now i want to do this and have the silver at the ends!

i don't know how to crochet (or how to ask about crocheting supplies in German... that's not in my vocab yet, lol) so I'll stick to the grosgrain ribbon.

ok, so another question just occurred to me....

do i attach the ribbon to the back of the belt or to the front of it? If in front, I obviously will need to attach it before doing the bottom edging.... but is it ok to attach it to the back, too? it's only going along the bottom edge of the belt and in between the bra cups.

Sending you 'fringe support' :)
-I'm currently making fringe for my costume and its tedious (definately not my favorite part). So good luck!

Are you using thread for the fringe? I took a bhuzzers advice from another thread and have been using dental floss and as long as you leave slack, i feel so much more confident about it being stronger. We'll see if it lasts the test of time ;)

That costume is amazing!! I am just finishing up my first "home made" costume and made the mistake of not making my own fringe..the cheap stuff has already lost its sparkle.
I LOVE that twisted bead run and have seen it on other costumes. May I ask if you made it? There was a thread a while back asking where to buy it, but no one had a source.
Thanks and congrats on creating a beauty!

Originally Posted by la_soraya

Sending you 'fringe support' :)
-I'm currently making fringe for my costume and its tedious (definately not my favorite part). So good luck!

Are you using thread for the fringe? I took a bhuzzers advice from another thread and have been using dental floss and as long as you leave slack, i feel so much more confident about it being stronger. We'll see if it lasts the test of time ;)

note to self: use dental floss ... or other thread-types that Bhuzzers may recommend....

Originally Posted by Shelleyshimmy

That costume is amazing!! I am just finishing up my first "home made" costume and made the mistake of not making my own fringe..the cheap stuff has already lost its sparkle.
I LOVE that twisted bead run and have seen it on other costumes. May I ask if you made it? There was a thread a while back asking where to buy it, but no one had a source.
Thanks and congrats on creating a beauty!

thanks :)

yes, i am doing all the beading myself... i love the abla-style beading, so am using that kind of 3D technique. it's very tight and i triple-knot it every 2-3 inches.

good luck with your cossie!

Originally Posted by xodinahox

thanks :)

yes, i am doing all the beading myself... i love the abla-style beading, so am using that kind of 3D technique. it's very tight and i triple-knot it every 2-3 inches.

good luck with your cossie!

Wowza!!

Originally Posted by xodinahox

ok, so another question just occurred to me....

do i attach the ribbon to the back of the belt or to the front of it? If in front, I obviously will need to attach it before doing the bottom edging.... but is it ok to attach it to the back, too? it's only going along the bottom edge of the belt and in between the bra cups.

I always attach mine to the back of the belt after all of the beadwork on the belt is done. That way, if you decide to remove it or need to replace/repair it, it's a simple task. And, you won't have to worry about the beadwork on the bottom edge covering your grosgrain.

You're doing a fantastic job on this costume. It's so feminine. I can't wait to see the finished product.

I second attaching the ribbon to the back of the costume. I usually cover over it with lining but on occasion you can see a smidge "peek" out from the bottom up (one of the restaurants I dance in has floor seating) so I'd be careful to use a similar color ribbon.

Also, about thread: I have been told to use dental floss but have found that I prefer Coats and Clark "Button and carpet" thread. It's super thick and I run it through beeswax before making the fringe. This makes it super strong and helps the beads glide smoothly so that the chances of the bead edges cutting the thread are minimized. Plus, you can use a darker color on darker costumes (the white or green of the floss won't stick out bizarrely)... though white dental floss would work with your costume colors...

I’ve made fringe a few times, and it is very time consuming. Using a bead spinner will save you a lot of time! They’re not very expensive, and they will cut your beading time down a lot.

I recommend sewing your fringe to ribbon, and then sewing that to the inside of the belt so the ribbon is hidden.

I use really thick button/craft thread and I’ve never had any problems with it breaking.

By the way, your costume is gorgeous! I can’t wait to see it finished!

thanks, ladies :)

i've looked long and hard for a gold/silver set that's to my taste and would fit me. i once asked Mme Amira about a two-tone GL set, but she wouldn't make it for me :( ... i ended up ordering a set from Hanan, but it came back with some white and copper mixed in. i didn't like it so i decided to sell it..... and make my own set.

i'm a bling lover, so this is going to be really blinged out. besides the ss28 rhinestone chain, i'll also be filling in any empty spots with little oval ab rhinestones trimmed in gold/silver, too.

i went and picked up some more beads yesterday... various shades of gold and silver... and started to make some fringe for fun since i'm still waiting for the rhinestones to arrive. AND i made an awesome discovery that may or may not backfire on me. i had some 7 count plastic mesh canvas laying around so i used it to make my fringe. Wow! it works great and the fringe is perfectly spaced out this way, and i get 14 strands per inch. since the plastic mesh is trimmable and flexible, i should be able to conform it to the shape of the belt pretty well... and it's really sturdy!

so what do you think... should i do it with the plastic canvas or grosgrain ribbon?


.... and i am definitely going to get a bead spinner, lol!

Plastic canvas can break, so if you want to go that route, I think I would still use some sort of reinforcing cord or ribbon along the top, so if the canvas deteriorates from sweat or some unforeseen rough handling, the integrity of your work will hold. You could baste a line of cording in and out of your fringe's "baseline" and just make sure to "catch" that cord in between each dangling strand. I suppose some would argue that it's sensible to tie a knot in between each strand anyway.

thanks, Tourbeau... you're so helpful, as always!

i did some quick math calculations, and to make icicle fringe that is 14ct with longest strands at 8 inches would cost me about 150-200 USD just for the beads alone!... (I'm using high quality gutermann beads on my costume)...

so i played around some more and did 2 inches worth of 10ct strands with the longest strands at 6.75 inches and it still looks nice and thick and reduces the cost by 30% or so.

so now i have another question... should i just make do with Egyptian fringe since it's going to cost a lot of money for the beads alone without taking into account the amount of work and time it would take to make it? i would have to sacrifice on quality a bit, though....

This is exactly why I buy my fringe instead of making it. It's way cheaper to buy high quality fringe than it is to make it when you figure the cost of the beads and the amount of time involved.

In my opinion, King of the Nile makes some of the best quality fringe out there. I'm sure he would make you a custom set of icicle fringe in silver and gold. Just email him and ask him. Yaz has always been great about making custom orders for me.

thanks for the tip, Shahla :)

i will be super excited if he can make me icicle fringe in a mix of gold/silver!

I have some icicle fringe in all yellow from him, so I know he'll make icicle fringe. I'm betting it's not much harder to mix the two bead colors.

i just sent him an email :)

i read somewhere that he's only wholesale now, so i'm a bit worried on whether or not he'll do one single fringe order....

I think it's just hip scarves that he's wholesaling. I just bought some fringe from him not long ago and he made it for me.

You should take the easy way out and sell the costume to me instead of worrying about fringe! I recently had the same problem with costume fringe. The color is a very unusual blue and the rhinestones are all aurora borealis, and I could not find any fringe to match. Looking at the time/cost of beads traditional fringe I could make it myself either. So I made big chunky dangles, and am backing it with loops of fringe.
PICT0272.jpgPICT0271.jpg

Sorry the pics are bad, there was no one else home to hold the belt up! In one picture you can see what it looks like when held upright, the other pic gives you a sense of the scale. This is a work in progress, so ignore all the strings please. I will probably add another row of the loops, which use far less beads than traditional fringe.
I put the dangling beads in front so they can have lots of movement, using the thick Coats & Clark thread. I tried dental floss with a previous costume but found that the fringe movement was much stiffer and less fluid when compared with traditionally threaded beads. These were all strung with a bead spinner. Tricky to use at first, but pays off eventually.

Good luck, it looks great so far!
Reyveka

lovely job with the fringe, Reyveka :)

i thought about spot fringe, too, but i really want the full fringe look.

about the swags, are you not concerned that the straight fringe would get tangled up in them while you're dancing?

thanks for the compliments on my cossie :) ... no plans to sell it for a looooooooong time (unless i shrink out of it, of course!)

Originally Posted by shahla

I think it's just hip scarves that he's wholesaling. I just bought some fringe from him not long ago and he made it for me.

Shahla, how long does it take for Yaz to respond to your emails? I emailed him on Saturday and still haven't heard back from him..... (can you tell I'm impatient to have the fringe problem settled? lol)

It usually takes a few days. You could try him on facebook too. I think he's registered as King of the Nile on facebook.

I know his business was distrupted a bit during the uprising in Egypt. I think the ladies that do his beadwork were fearful to report to work. Hopefully things have gotten a little better.

The costume looks wonderful!
I think the fringe would look nice with mixed strands of gold and silver, not gold on top and silver at the ends. Bellas often have many different colours of strands and it gives a really pretty and soft effect.