I can speak to your bead needs. I have a little experience with them. The first issue is that you want to couch them, AND that you want them to be washable and dry-cleanable after having couched them on. At least that's what I understood you wanted.
Couching is fine, but you should not do it using the thread that the beads are sold on, because that thread is not made to be used for that nor is it durable. So.....what I would do, is re-string the beads on bead thread or C-lon (which is pretty heavy thread that I use for bead crochet) or buttonhole thread. Then you can couch it on using bead thread or quilting thread. Even so, I personally would not trust any garment so beaded to a dry cleaner. I would expect some beads to come off. Unless it is a specialty dry-cleaner that does a lot of that sort of thing., and has a good reputation. Any glass or crystal beads will be washable--in fact, the garment could be carefully washed by hand with Woolite or any such cleaner, and laid out to dry on towels or racks safely. Couching is not a favorite method of mine. I generally actually SEW the beads to the fabric, 3 or 4 at a time. But that's me. Yours in cosutming,Lis AA On Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:00:11 -0800 Lavolta Press <f...@lavoltapress.com> writes: > I don't really like beading. Most of my experience is in restoring > 1920s > evening dresses. When I am working on one section, more sections are > > always coming apart. > > Having said that, I want to buy strands of (washable and dry > cleanable) > fine glass beads I can couch onto a project, meaning the thread for > the > strands has to be of permanent quality, not just beads strung > together > for sale. Where can I buy them? > > Fran > Lavolta Press > Books on historic clothing > www.lavoltapress.com > www.facebook.com/LavoltaPress > _______________________________________________ > h-costume mailing list > h-costume@mail.indra.com > http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume > _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
