Beaded Cab Barrette

I’ve made a few barrettes where I beaded around a cab and then glued this to a metal barrette. Whenever I wear them, I get compliments. You can use all kinds of cabs for this project including stone, porcelain, or fused glass. You can even cut the shank off a button and use that as a cab. In this project, I used two fused glass cabs and two freshwater pearls that are flat on one side and round on the other.

You’ll need:

*Lacy’s Stiff Stuff (TM)
E6000 glue
pencil
scissors
ultra suede
choice of seed beads
cabs
ruler
beading needle/thread

*Patsy Bass was sweet enough to send me a sample of this great product. If you haven’t tried it yet, ask your local or favorite on line bead store if they carry it. Now that I’ve used Stiff Stuff, I’ll never go back to interfacing.

1. Cut your Stiff Stuff so that you have plenty of room for your cabs and beads, and also make sure it will cover the back of your barrette completely.

2. Use a pencil and ruler to draw a ruler on your stiff stuff. I added marks as follows on mine pictured: large lines for 1 inch, medium lines for ½ inch, small lines for ¼ inch.

3. Now use the ruler you’ve drawn to determine where you want your cabs to be positioned. Use the marks to help ensure they are spaced evenly apart. This is also when you need to estimate how many rows of beads you plan to sew around each cab. You’ll need leave enough room around your cabs for this. The size of your beads, number of rows, and size of your cabs will all vary. So, I can’t offer a specific measurement here.

4. Once you know where you want the cabs, use glue to adhere them onto the Stiff Stuff.

5. Allow some time to dry before continuing: a maximum of 24 hours and a minimum of 1 hour in case you can’t control yourself.

Next Page->To see how to add the beads

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All graphics created by Tammy Powley.

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