Ice Mom’s Sewing Guide: Sewing Sequin Trim on Figure Skating Dresses

I’ve admitted here many times that I hate to hand sew and I will devote a ton of brain power and sew great lengths to avoid picking up a needle and thread with my hands. So, for those of you who are gifted hand seamstresses and have beautiful, even stitching, never curse when the thread breaks or can tie a beautiful knot right against the fabric, I say this: 1) I am jealous, but not jealous enough to practice hand sewing; and 2) sew sequin trim onto a figure skating dress by hand – you’ll be thrilled with the result.

Applying sequin trim to a figure skating dress is a lot less expensive than applying crystals to a dress. I’ve bought sequin trim for $1 – $5/yard. When you purchase sequin trim to embellish a waistline, neckline, or arm, purchase the stretchy kind. If you’re using it on the skirt, stretchy or non-stretchy will work fine.

If the great thing about sequin trim is the low cost, the worst thing is that you’re not going to get the sparkle you’re looking for, unless the figure skater will be under a spotlight. Sequins just don’t sparkle like crystals do; in fact, they can almost disappear on the ice. I made the dress on the right for Ice Girl ‘s compulsory program. It’s hard to see, but the athletic mesh sleeves have factory-sewn sequins on them in attractive flower shapes. I ran a single strand of matching gold sequins at the neckline and the skirt hem. Sure, I could see the gold sequins from the stands, but they didn’t sparkle. The sequins on the sleeves weren’t visible at all.

Sequin trim has other drawbacks, too: the trim unravels and loses sequins when it’s cut, it’s hard to machine sew, and if your figure skater snags the sequins, they sprinkle everywhere. Sequin fabric can be scratchy.

Of course, that hasn’t kept me from sewing the trim! I mean, come on! The dress on the right was for her compulsory program. I think saving money and sewing on sequins is just fine.

Sewing Sequin Trim

Materials:

• New, sharp, heavy machine needles. I use Schmetz universal 100/16 or 110/18 (the second number would be a Singer needle number)
• Invisible thread or all-purpose thread to match sequin color
• Stretchy sequin trim
• Sewing machine oil, cotton swab

You might as well resign yourself to busting some needles if you machine sew. It’s just going to happen. I use a new heavy-duty universal needle and have a couple in reserve.

1. Install the new needle in the machine. Put one drop of sewing machine oil on a cotton swab and give the needle a quick swipe, back and forth. You’re asking a lot from the needle and the little bit of oil will help it penetrate the tough plastic sequins.
2. Thread the machine with either invisible thread in the spool or all-purpose thread. Use all-purpose thread for the bobbin. For the dress on the right, I used invisible thread over the sequins and had great results. It’s tough to find a gold metallic thread that doesn’t make me want to curse.
3. Pin the sequin trim to the garment, but use just one pin and pin it at the very beginning of where you want to start sewing. Make sure you allow some of the sequin trim to stick out beyond the point where you’ll start sewing.
4. Very important: think about the direction you’ll be sewing when you’re applying the sequin trim. Notice that the sequins on the trim overlap one another slightly. Be sure the presser foot will encourage the sequins to lie flat as you sew, rather than make the sequins stand on end. In other words, the presser foot should glide over the sequin trim, not bump over it like it’s crashing through gates. No idea what I’m talking about? Grab a scrap of sequin trim and try sewing on it from both directions. See? One’s way better.
5. If you have a narrow, single row of sequins on your sequin trim, it’s worth your while to see if you have a presser foot available for your machine that will accommodate braided trim. I know the sequins aren’t braided, but the braided trim presser foot will work like a charm for single-sequin chains.
6. Set your machine to a long zig-zag stitch. If your sequin trim is less than 1/2 inch, plan to sew directly down the middle of the trim. If it’s larger than 1/2 inch. plan to make two rows of zig-zag stitching.
7. Center your presser foot over the end of the sequin trim and remove the one pin.
8. Sew slowly either down the middle of the sequin trim (narrow trims) or along the side of the trim (wide trims). Do not stretch the sequin trim, but lay it out before the presser foot. Stretching the trim as you sew will make the dress fabric pucker.
9. When you are about 1 inch from the end of the sequin trim placement, stop. Snip the trim where you started sewing almost even with the stitching. You’re doing this because without the stitching to hold the sequins in place, that sequin trim unravels pretty quickly.
10. Overlap the sequin ends slightly and zig-zag the exposed cut end.

Quick note about that hem on the white and gold dress. Originally, I had planned to sew the sequins about 1 ” from the skirt’s bottom. I was using a stretch trim and, even though I hadn’t pulled on the trim as I stitched, the fabric still puckered above and below the sequin trim. I ripped off the sequins and applied them to the very bottom of the skirt hem and had no puckering problems.

Sewing Sequin Fabric

Materials:

• sequin fabric with either glued sequins or sewn sequins (see photo on the right)
• sharp snips
• tweezers
• Goo Gone or lighter fluid and a box of tissues

I learned this the hard way. I had sewn Ice Girl a beautiful black stretch velvet dress in June. The velvet had a sprinkle of glued-on sequins. The monster wore the dress just once. Elegant pattern, great lines, and the dress looked terrific on the ice. The problem was that Ice Girl didn’t feel comfortable in it. The sequins trapped in the seam allowances were really scratchy and she hated the dress. Man, it was a pretty dress. Ah, well.

1. Remove all sequins in the seam allowances of the dress. I use a tweezers on glued-on dresses, but a small amount of Goo Gone or lighter fluid on a tissue will encourage the sequins to just slip off the fabric and won’t leave a stain. The problem is that if you have Goo Gone or lighter fluid on your fingers afterward, you might cause other sequins to slip off, too.
2. If the sequins are sewn on the fabric, just snip the thread on the top of the sequin. It’s safest to snip against the plastic sequin because then you don’t risk snipping the fabric.
3. Be generous about removing the sequins. You don’t want those hard, plastic disks near your sensitive skin. If you’re not sure if the sequin is inside or outside the seam allowance, ask yourself: how much whining can I take? Then pull the darn sequin.
4. Sew the fabric as usual.

That’s my approach to sewing sequins. I’m sure I’ve left off a crucial tip or forgot to mention something. I invite all of you sewers to please correct me in the comments.

Do you have a better way to machine sew sequins? Please leave your methods and tips in the comments.

Do you have a question for Ice Mom or the Advisory Board? Send me a real stumper! Do you have an idea for a post? Send that, too! Do you want to write a guest post? Great! Let me know what you’d like to do. Are you an expert and you’d like to be on Wednesday’s Ask the Expert feature? Terrific! Send me an e-mail: icemom.diane@gmail.com.

Photo credits:
Blurry sequins: weglet on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Ice Girl’s white dress: Ice Mom photo
Green fabric with sequins: claire.5000 on Flickr.com Creative Commons