With all this talk about the fabulous and lavishly beaded Edwardian evening wear featured in the film Titanic, I thought I might point you in the direction of some wonderful mail-order sources for beading. I covered trims in a previous article (See February ' 98 ) These trim sources carry lovely beaded trims (if you are not inclined to do it yourself). For hand-beading a dress, however, a good assortment of seed beads is required to achieve the desired result.

In order to get started on a beading project of any size, you will need a few basic items: 1) a set of good thin beading needles (I recommend a #13, which is sized to fit 11/0's and smaller beads. Warning, it can be quite a chore to thread that tiny hole!), 2) several spools of strong silk or Kevlar beading thread, and 3) a good supply of seed beads. Crystal flats, rondelles, bugles and other types of accent beads can be added as the complexity of your designs advances with your experience.

Seed beads come in various sizes, but I prefer to use 11/0's. They come in a large selection of colors and types, and their holes are large enough to pass strong thread through. Bead size is measured according to the number of beads per inch when strung. A 10/0 seed bead will have approximately 10 beads to the inch when laid out flat. An 11/0 will have 11, and so on. Remember the more beads per inch, the smaller the bead and thus the smaller the center hole. I have not had much luck working on clothing with anything smaller than an 11/0. Beads are sold by weight (grams, ounces, kilos) or by the hank. A hank is a strung bunch of beads, each hank containing approximately 12 strings that are about 20" inches long. The companies I have listed below will provide very accurate descriptions of their color assortment over the phone, or, for a small fee will send you a sampler card of beads you may be interested in purchasing before you invest in larger quantities. They will also try to match fabric or other colored items to your specifications with beads in stock.

You can acquire all the necessary items to begin your own beading project from Garden O'Beadin' 1-800-232-3588; fax: 1-707-923-9160 and/or Shipwreck Beads 1-800-950-4232; fax 1-206-754-2510. For the really elaborate crystals and other adornments, try Ornamental Resources 1-800-876-6762 (in Denver 1-303-279-2102); fax: 1-303-567-4245. They carry a huge selection of Austrian and Czech crystal beads.