Learn how to sew sequin fabric. This guide provides helpful tips to make the process smoother and achieve professional-looking results.
Hey y’all, today we’re going to talk about how to sew sequin fabric. Sequin fabrics are gorgeously glittery and make an impact whether it’s just some sparkle for the holidays or head to toe bling for a formal event. However handling sequins can be tricky. The tips in this post should help you sew your sequins without stressing out.
I’ve used sequin fabric to make myself a skirt. It was also gorgeous in the prom dress I sewed for my daughter last year. This is definitely a fabric for special occasions, or making an every day occasion special.
Key Takeaways
Like all fabrics, the keys to success with sequins include:
- choosing the right pattern
- employing the right cutting, marking, sewing and handling methods
- using right stitching techniques, and
- going the extra mile in finishing for a stunning result
So let’s go over those categories in more detail. But first, a brief overview of types of sequin fabric and their properties.
Types of Sequin Fabric
All sequin fabric is embellished. That means it starts with some kind of fabric base, and then the disks we call sequins are affixed to it. In the beginning sequins were metal disks hand sewn on. Later, as manufacturing techniques and materials changed, the sequins were made of different materials. Today most sequins are made of mylar or plastic pieces.
The fiber and construction technique of the base fabric affects the behavior of the final embellished sequin fabric. Common modern sequin fabrics have a stretch mesh base made of nylon or polyester that resembles tulle.
The sequins can be attached differently. The cheapest method is glue dot sequins, which is fabric you might see used for costumes.
There are also machine sewn sequins, attached in rows, in a pattern, or randomly. Sequins with a hole on one side are called paillettes. Attaching them on only one side allows more movement. If the paillettes are a different color on each side this is how you get flip sequins, also referred to as reversible sequin fabric.
Sequins can also vary in size. The tiny, randomly placed sequins on blue fabric shown here are only about 2mm in diameter. This type of sequin fabric is probably the easiest to start with if you’ve never worked with sequins.
How to Sew Sequin Fabric – Tips and Tricks
I’ll get in to more specifics in the sections below, but here’s a video covering some of my best tips that you can also watch on YouTube here.
Tips to sew sequin fabric:
- Choose a simple design – fewer seam lines are better.
- Choose a lined pattern or make a lining
- Use older scissors to cut, or be prepared to sharpen yours after the sequin project. Alternately, use a rotary cutter and be prepared the replace the blade after cutting sequins.
- Remove larger sequins from the seam allowances.
- Thread marking is the best way to mark sequin fabric.
- Smaller sequined fabric can often be sewn without removing the sequins. Test on a scrap of fabric first.
- Don’t use a serger – it could kill your blade.
- Be prepared with a new package of needles, especially if you are sewing over the sequins. Your needles will dully quickly.
- If you are sewing through the sequins, play with a slightly longer stitch length. If your base fabric stretches, try a narrow width zig zag.
- If you have removed the sequins from the seam allowance, a smaller stitch length might work better, particularly if the base fabric is mesh.
- Use clips to hold pieces together for sewing; they work better than pins on sequin fabric.
- Hand sew extra sequins over the seams to hide them.
Choosing The Right Pattern
Sequin fabric works best when you have few seams in your pattern. It doesn’t work well with volume details, like gathers or sculptural elements. It is a relatively heavy fabric, so sleek designs that hang close to the body work well. You can combine pattern pieces so that you have fewer seams where practical.
Sequin garments work best when they are lined. So look for a pattern with a lining or prepare to adapt the pattern in order to fully line the garment.
If the type of sequin fabric you are working with will require you to remove the sequins from the seam allowance (more on that in the Marking and Preparing to Sew section below), you might want to adjust the pattern to have smaller seam allowances. For example, instead of 5/8 seams, cut down your pattern 1/4 inch on each edge so you only have 3/8 seams.
Cutting Sequin Fabric
First, realize that cutting through the disks is going to dull whatever you use to cut. Then make a choice accordingly. You might want to use your good scissors and just have them sharpened right after this project. Alternately, you might want to use a rotary cutter and replace the blade after cutting out your pieces. You might want to use old or cheaper scissors.
You should also prepare for the fact that as you work with and cut sequin fabric, you will get sequins and partial sequins everywhere. I treat this as I do fur and keep my vacuum out to clean up constantly.
Marking and Preparing to Sew
Thread marking is the best way to mark sequin fabrics. If you are using a fabric with larger sequins, you’ll need to mark the seamlines with contrasting thread and remove the sequins that fall outside the seamline. This is why I suggest a smaller seam allowance when working with these fabrics – fewer sequins to remove.
When you think about removing sequins, you can also see why having the fewest number of seams possible is good! I generally prefer a sharp seam ripper for sequin removal, but you can also use small scissors or a razor. I just find those tools give me more holes in the mesh than if I use a seam ripper.
Some sequin fabrics have a nap. Nap means the fabric looks different from different directions. If this is the case for your fabric, make sure you pay attention to the nap when cutting out your pattern pieces.
Finally, you may want to cut your pattern pieces out in a single layer instead of with the fabric folded. That’s what I did with the prom dress to make sure I could take advantage of the scalloped border edge.
Sewing Machine Settings
Your sewing machine settings will depend on the type of sequin fabrics you’re using. When sewing sequin fabrics with the sequins removed from the seam allowance, a smaller needle (70/10 or 80/11) and a smaller stitch length works better.
If you are sewing through the sequins, a slightly longer stitch length and larger needle (80/11 or 90/14) will work better and make it less likely you end up with broken needles. You should have some extra needles on hand, because sewing through sequins will quickly dull your needles.
When working with stretch sequin fabrics you might also want to try a narrow zig zag stitch.
Don’t use a serger or overlocker. Even if you removed sequins from the seam allowances, the likelihood of a sequin making its way into a seam is high. And if you didn’t remove the sequins all those tiny cut shards will gunk up your machine and make raised, itchy seams.
Handling The Fabric
Finishing Touches
If you want the item to look seamless, save whole sequins that fall off the cut edges and/or remove sequins from a scrap. Then hand sew these sequins over the seamlines to make them invisible. You can also do this anywhere your fabric has bald spots. I didn’t take the time to do that with this skirt, but I did on the prom dress.
Let’s talk about hemming. You can approach this a few ways. On the prom dress I didn’t hem, but made use of the finished scalloped border on the fabric. Even if your fabric doesn’t have a border like mine did, as long as the fabric base is non fraying, you can skip hemming. You will want to remove any partial sequins (tweezers help) from the hem edge as well as make sure all the sequins on the edge are secure. Hand sewing them into place might be required.
If your base fabric frays, you can hem by sewing the bottom of the garment to the lining. That’s what I did for the gold skirt. You want the lining only very slightly shorter than the outer fabric in this case so that it doesn’t show on the outside of the garment.
