I love beads, and beads are necessary for decorating dance costumes with.
They add colours, shine, and movements to your costumes! 😀
But just walking through a bead shop without knowing much about them is overwhelming! 🙁
So here’s a quick guide for beads for beginners, so you can confidently shop for beads for your costume projects. Let’s get started!
Click here to check out the DIY Applique Kit store!
Bead Guide for Dance Costume Making
Perfect types of beads for dance costume making
There are so many types of beads out there, but here are a few types of beads that are used often for dance costume decorations.
Seed beads – these are those tiny beads that are only a couple of mm big. These are perfect for decorating appliques or making bead fringe because they move beautifully together.
Round beads – these are larger beads that are up to 1/2in big, and they are great for adding texture and colours to your costumes.
Faceted beads – These are round beads but have facets or these sides that shine. These are also great for costumes because they sparkle under different lights.
And there are other specialty beads, but those are basic ones you can start with. And these beads often come in 2 different materials.
One is glass. Glass beads tend to sparkle more and heavier. They look more expensive and they are more expensive. Because it’s glass, it can break as well.
The other one is acrylic. Acrylic beads tend to be lighter and cheaper. They can look cheap as well. But if you want bright colours, acrylic ones tend to show colours better.
And there are metal ones, wooden ones, and precious stones etc, which you can definitely use for costume making, but those are mostly high priced.
It’s really up to your preference and budget, but if you like lighter costumes, go for acrylic beads, because the weight of glass beads quickly add up! And reserve glass beads for beads that you can’t find in acrylic or accessories that may be looked at close up. 🙂
Perfect sizes of beads for dance costume making
When you buy beads, the sizes of round beads and other specialty odd size beads are often indicated in mm. So you know exactly how big each bead is.
But seed beads have their own sizing system like sizes 8, 10, 11, 15 and so on, and the larger the size number the smaller the beads.
For belly dance costume making, I like using sizes 6 and 8 because they are bigger about 3mm big, and show on costumes well. And of course, it’s faster to fill space with larger beads.
Where can you buy beads?
If you’re new to bead shopping, I recommend you find a local bead shop and look at beads in person. Even craft stores like Michael’s carry a nice selection. You can really see what glass beads and acrylic beads look like, the colours, how the facets shine and so on, and you can ask questions.
Once you get used to beads, you can purchase beads online. Here are online bead shops that I’ve used before and liked 🙂 (Below are affiliate links – if you click on them and purchase, I get a small commission for referral 🙂 )
Pandahall – lots of cheap options, but shipping can be expensive and take a long time depending on your location
Fire Mountain Gems – great selection!
Dreamtime Creations – great place for buying high-quality beads and rhinestones.
When you shop beads online, be sure to check the sizes, package sizes and colours.
Colours may be the trickiest thing to nail down when you’re shopping online, so if possible, I recommend you buy a small package first to make sure you like the colour.
How many beads should you buy?
Picking your favourite beads is easy…. But knowing how many to buy is so hard.
There are 2 ways of going about it.
First, if you’re decorating costumes or making appliques, you won’t really know how many beads you need until you make one.
And here’s what I do.
I basically buy a whole bunch of beads that would go together in small quantities, and make a sample applique to see how many of each I need. Then multiply the number of beads by the number of appliques I want to make.
Does that mean I’d have to go shop for beads twice?
Yes, most likely!
But that’s the most accurate way to know how many beads I need.
But there’s a risk that the store may not carry the same beads anymore 🙁
Now here’s an easier way to shop beads for your costume projects.
The easier way to shop beads for your costume projects
Since buying beads was one of the biggest challenges many dance costume makers were facing, I put together DIY applique kits!
In each kit, you will get all the beads and materials you need to make the applique design of your choice. You’ll get the step-by-step instructions in each kit, so once you receive the kit, open it up, and start creating!
I’m adding final touches to the online kit store right now, and the store will launch in 2 weeks! If you’re curious about it, click the link below, and sign up to hear about it and get a special coupon!
The DIY Applique Kit shop is open now!
Check out the DIY Applique Kit store here!
I hope this guide helps you get started on your costume decoration, and I hope to see your beautiful creations in Sparkly Belly’s Facebook group soon.
Thanks for reading, and keep sparkling! 😉
P.S. Pin this image for your future projects!
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