Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to today's art lesson.

This is our fifth and final lesson and our question today is how can I embellish my textiles? Today is our chance to see if we can use all those skills that you've been learning over your last lessons and apply them in a new way.

We're going to learn to add a little bit of pizazz to your textile work.

It should be a really fun lesson and I'm hoping you're going to really enjoy it.

I'm really looking forward to teaching it and I'm really looking forward to seeing some of your ideas.

Right, let's get started.

So this is the equipment that you're going to need for this lesson.

You're going to need a sketchbook, which might be a sketchbook or just some loose pieces of paper, a pencil or something to draw with, some scissors, some colouring materials, some needle and a thread, and some buttons, beads, or sequins.

Do you remember at the end of the last lesson I said that we might be needing these? If you've only got one or some of those, that's absolutely fine, you can alter your design according to what you've got.

Now, we are going to be using scissors and a needle today.

So you will be needing adult supervision.

Today's art lesson we are going to review our work from last week.

We're going to learn about how textiles are embellished, we're going to plan our own work and then we're going to embellish our applique from last week.

Do you remember I said I thought mine was looking a little bit boring when I evaluated it? Well, we're going to see if we can add a little pizazz to it today.

Our keywords are embellish.

Now, embellish sounds like a very posh word.

It's a very posh word which means add additional bits.

Add stuff to it to make it look good, embellish it.

A sequin, I expect you all know what a sequin is.

A sequin is a small shiny disc that you sew onto fabric.

A template, a paper shape used in sewing.

Design, you're going to do a drawing of something before you make it, before it's made.

So it's a way of you planning ahead so you don't waste materials.

And embroidery, and I expect you all remember what the word embroidery means from our embroidery lesson.

It's decorative stitching.

So let's start with a drawing warm-up.

What I want you to do is to copy the initial from our last lesson, four times onto a piece of paper.

Can you see there's my L, because remember my name's Louise, even though everybody calls me Mrs. Creane when I'm at work.

And I've drawn it out four times.

They're not all exactly the same.

It doesn't matter if there's a little bit of a difference, but try and draw it out four times.

And then you're going to think of four different ways to add pattern or interest to your initial.

So there I am, I've added spots, and stripes, and wiggles, and then circles of different sizes.

And then once I've done that I've coloured them in.

I've coloured all four of mine.

And you might not want to colour all four of yours, you might just want to colour your favourite one.

But I want you to see if you can think about how you can make that letter, that initial a little bit more exciting.

So you can use some of my ideas or you might probably have got better ideas of your own.

So pause the video now and see if you can do that.

And I can't wait to see what your finished work looks like.

How did you get on? Well done, that looks really, really good.

Now, this is my work from last week.

It looks a bit boring, doesn't it? I'm very pleased with the way I've sewn it, but it does look a little bit plain.

Hmm, how could I do to make that look more exciting? More interesting, more like those ideas we just thought about in our warm-up.

Let's see if we can get some ideas.

What could we do to make it more interesting? We need to embellish it.

We need to add something to it, don't we? We need to use those ideas that we were just thinking of.

Let's see how we do that.

So here's a piece of embroidery that has been embellished.

Let's have a look.

What can you see? What does that picture look like to you? Have a minute just to think.

Look very carefully.

It's a picture of an applique of an aeroplane by Bev Williams. We've looked at her work before, haven't we? And she's sewn on the outline of a aeroplane there.

And you can see all the threads, can't you? I really like that.

And then in the background she's done lots and lots of different stitching.

I think it looks as if the aeroplane is flying high above the fields and the fields look like a patchwork below.

It's a beautiful piece of work, isn't it? So she's changed the background by adding lots and lots of stripes.

And that's something that we could use, couldn't we? We could steal that, oh not steal, of course, we could borrow or share that idea with her and use that with our applique.

Remember we were saying mine looked a little bit boring.

I could add sewing to the background, couldn't I? So that's one idea, let's remember that.

What can you see in this picture? Look very carefully.

I can see a deer.

But how has it been made? Well, the deer itself is actually an applique onto a plain cream background.

And then on top of the deer they've added all sorts of embellishments.

What embellishment can you see? What have they added to that applique? Can you spot the embroidery? I expect you can.

Yep, you're right.

The embroidered crown on her head or its head, I don't know if it's a girl or a boy.

The embroidery on the head has been embroidered, hasn't it? The leaves, they look rather attractive, don't they? Can you see any other embroidery? Yep, the eyes.

There's lovely long eyelashes.

The eyes look amazingly realistic, don't they? That's some rather good embroidery.

Can you spot the last bit of embroidery in that picture? Yep, it's the mouth, isn't it? That lovely smiley mouth.

That's also been embroidered on.

But they've not just used applique and embroidery to add embellishment to this picture.

What else have they used? Can you see anything else? Can you see the sequins? Look carefully.

Yep, the nose is made out of sequins, isn't it? And if you look carefully, you can see how the little round circles have been stitched on.

And there is some sequins on the cheeks too.

So we've learned from this piece of work that we could embellish our initial, our applique that we did last week by adding embroidery or adding sequins.

Hmm, I wonder what else we could get, where else we could get some ideas from? Let's look at something else.

How has this piece of work been created? Look carefully now.

What can you see? There are stitches, aren't there? Lots and lots of stitches adding almost that band of grey around the outside of that great big pile of beads and sequins.

And there are beads.

If you look there's a great, big mound of beads they almost look as if they've been sprinkled on top, but I think they've all been individually sewn.

And around the outside of the grey sewing there's also like an outline of beads, isn't there? And in the background where it's blurring it's a little bit hard to see, I think there's lots and lots of beads as well.

Can you see the sequins at the side where the black feathers are? And those sequins have got a bead on top, haven't they? And if you look very carefully, you can see the stitching, which is being used to hold them in place.

Now, this is a very, very decorated piece of work, isn't it? I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to applique, add this much detail to my applique, but it does give us lots and lots of ideas, doesn't it? I quite like the way that some of the sequins have been sewn flat and others have been sewn standing straight up, adding lots of texture, as well as lots of sparkle to the work.

Look at this design.

What can you see here? Can you see the elephant in the middle? I rather like the way that there's a border around the outside of the elephant.

And if you look carefully there are lots and lots of different colours and patterns, aren't there? I quite like the tassels that have been added around the outside.

And again, that's something that we could maybe think about when we're thinking about our applique.

Could we add tassels to our work? Could we add a border to our work? Could we embellish the background? What ideas from this can we use to give us ideas on how we're going to embellish our initial later on? So which of the following is used to embellish textile work? What have we found? Do we embellish our textiles with sequins? Could we use beads? Do we use embroidery or do we use buttons? Which of those do we embellish textiles with? Think carefully.

Oh, it was mean, wasn't it? I gave you a trick question then.

All of those things, we can embellish our textiles with all of those.

Now, don't worry if you've only got some of those today, we can just use some of them.

If you've only got one of those available, you can use one of those.

You can still have a really beautiful piece of work just using one, or you might want to have all four if you're very lucky and you've got that much stuff available to you.

So let's learn how to embellish our work.

What you're going to need is a needle and thread, and some buttons, some beads, or some sequins.

Now, if you've only got one of those, that's fine.

You can just use the one or if you've got all of them, brilliant, you're very lucky, aren't you? Well, let's see, how do we use those then? So what we need are some buttons, there's a bead and there's a sequin.

And what I'm going to do is to show you how to sew them on.

So you need to have your needle and threads threaded and you need a knot at the end.

And you come up underneath your fabric where you want your bead or your item to go, and you pick it up, and if it's a bead, you just put the needle through the middle, and pull it down to the bottom, and then very close to the bead, so you hardly see the stitching, almost underneath it, you push the needle back down, and you pull it down so it's sitting tight against the fabric.

Can you see? So that's how you sew a bead on.

We're going to sew on, I think it's a sequin next.

So you come up where you want your sequin to go.

Oh no, I'm doing a button.

Oh, and I'm dropping the button.

It's all going wrong.

So you put the needle up through the hole in the middle of the button.

Can you see? And then you can come, now, you've got a choice with a button.

You go through one of the other holes, and then you go back up.

Now, that can be quite tricky.

You go back up through the other hole and back down again.

And that's how you sew your button on.

Now, to keep it nice and secure you do that several times.

If you look, I'm struggling there to find the hole.

Can you see, you come up from underneath, and you try and wiggle around, till your needle fits through the hole, and you go back down and down again, and then you're going to come back up.

You're going to see me struggling again.

Oh, look I found it straight away that time.

And you go back down the other side.

And the more times that you do that with your thread the more secure your button will be.

Now, you could do your button in a different way.

You could create a different sort of pattern on it.

So again, you come up from underneath where you want your button to go.

You thread your needle through one of the holes of the button.

And this time I'm going to see if I can create a cross.

So I'm not going to the one next, I'm going opposite.

Push the needle down until it's nice, and tight, and flat against the fabric.

And then I'm going to come up through one of those other holes I haven't used yet, and back down the other side.

And can you see this time I've created a cross? And again, you're going to go back up and back over to make sure it's nice and secure.

So, and again, and I'm back up through the hole.

It can be quite tricky to find those holes and back down again.

And that's how you sew a button on.

That's a very useful skill.

I should use that skill, shouldn't I, to fix that button on my cardigan.

from the first lesson that I haven't done.

Now, I'm going to use a slightly thinner, finer thread for the sequin because the sequin is so little.

And again, you come up underneath where you would like your sequin to go and you pull the needle through, and then you thread the sequin, the needle through the hole in the middle of the sequin, push the sequin to the bottom.

I always find it easier to push it to the bottom so I know, and you put the needle in just next to the sequin, and that'll help hold it nice and flat.

Now, you come up beside the sequin again, pull the needle through and you go back down through the middle of the sequin.

Now, if you do this, this will make it sit nice and flat, It'll hold it in place.

And you can do that as many times as you want.

I usually do it about three times so it's held nice and flat against the fabric.

And pull the threads flat and that's how you sew a sequin on.

And there is a sequin, a button, another button and a bead.

That's how you add them to your textiles.

So over to you.

You're going to have a go now to see if you can sew on a button, a sequin or a bead.

If you haven't got all of those, you've only got one of those available to you that's absolutely fine, just practise sewing on what you've got.

You might want to do it once like I have, or you might want to do it lots of times until you really feel like you've got the hang of it.

It can be a bit tricky sometimes when you're doing a button to find the hole where you need to pull the needle back up through, but don't panic about that, just keep going, persevere, have a little play around trying to fit the needle through the hole, and then pull it back down, and I'm sure you will be fine.

Don't make your thread too long.

'Cause if your thread is too long, it'll get all knotted up and you're going to get in a big tangle.

And be careful of that sharp point.

Now, we are going to be using a needle.

So you must make sure you've got adult supervision here and mind the sharp point of the needle on your finger.

Can you attach sequins, beads or buttons, or whichever one of those you've got available? Pause the video now and come back when you've had a practise of those.

Good luck.

So that's my applique from last week, isn't it? It's my letter L.

It's looking rather plain and now I'm feeling quite inspired now I've looked at those other pieces of work.

And I know now how I can sew on a bead, and a button, and a sequin.

I want to have a go at thinking about how could I make that more exciting.

Now, before you have a go at doing yours and sewing some beads and buttons on yours, I thought I'd give you some ideas.

Let's see.

There's one.

Now, obviously the colours are different to mine, but I wonder what ideas I could take from this idea.

Well, in this picture what the person has, well, actually, it was me.

What I have done is appliqued several layers of fabric on top or underneath and around.

So I cut the background so it was a bit shorter and you can see I've used a zigzag stitch, to add it onto a different colour background.

And then I've cut out another initial, another patch to add on top of my original patch.

So it looks like there are two L's, doesn't it? There's a pale blue L and then there's a pink one round the outside like an outline.

Then I had a rummage around my house and I found some buttons.

So I've added some buttons to the corners and heart buttons to the middle, just because I found heart buttons, and I've done some wiggly sewing.

And then if you look carefully I've added some sequins just down the middle of my letter L.

Hmm, I wonder what ideas on that you like.

And what idea is more important that you don't like? 'Cause you don't have to copy this, do you? Or what of those things you have available to use, and which you don't? So just have a think.

Think, which of those ideas would you like to copy? Would you like to use? Let's look at a different one.

Now, this time I have just, it's exactly the same, isn't it? And it is black and white.

And I only had sewing.

I thought, what could I do if I only had thread available to me? So I've stitched running stitch all the way around the outside of my L and then I've gone back and filled in the gap so that it looks like a solid outline.

And then I was thinking, it still looks a little bit boring.

So I've added running stitch that looks like rays of light coming outside of my L.

And I was quite pleased with that, even though I'm only using embroidery, it looks very effective.

Maybe you could do that.

You might want to use exactly the same idea or you might think, hmm, I like the idea of going round the outside of my letter, but maybe I'm going to add some swirly lines or different coloured stitching to mine because I've got more than one colour available to me.

I could add lots and lots of colours of stitching.

Have a think.

I could have embellished the actual letter as well, couldn't I, and added some detail to that.

Oh, here's another idea.

This time I found the sequins after rummaging, I did manage to find them and look, I've done a border around the outside of my L.

And the first thing I did was do running stitch and I thought hmm, that looks a bit plain.

So I've added a sequin to all the gaps between the running stitches.

And if you look at the very top, you can see where my running stitch wasn't quite long enough and I've got a little bit of a gap, but I don't think you really notice unless I point that out.

Now, if you look at my letter, I've added sequins to it, all over it, just sort of randomly.

And then I thought, hmm, I still lots of gaps.

So I've taken my embroidery thread and I've added some stars to it too.

I was quite pleased with that.

I wonder which of those ideas you would like to use on your work.

So how are you going to embellish your applique? Have a look at those pictures and think which of those ideas do I like? Which of those things have I got that I could use? What could I do to make my applique from last week more interesting.

You've got to think about what you've got available to use.

Do you want to add a border to your work? Could you add pattern to your applique? And what stitches could you add? Maybe you enjoyed the sewing so much that you went off and you learned some different stitches, not just running stitch.

And you could use those to decorate and embellish your applique too, couldn't you? So use what you know and use your best skills to see what you could come up with.

Now, before we do our sewing, we need to have a little think.

We need to design what you'd like your finished work to look like.

Because I expect you haven't got enough resources that you want to waste them.

So before you do anything in sewing and textiles it's always good to have a think, come up with the design before you actually do anything.

So the first thing I did was to draw a letter, draw a sketch of my letter.

And then I did several designs.

So I didn't just do one, I thought of several ideas because each time I sort of developed my ideas a little bit further.

Think about the composition, the colour and the pattern that you might use.

And there are my ideas.

So you can see, I tried four completely different ideas and I thought about what I could do, I took some of the ideas from those designs we've just looked at and I thought, hmm what could I do to make my initial even better? What could I add to embellish it? How could I use what I've got available to me? Could I use buttons or sequins? Could I add embroidery? What colour thread might I want to use? So pause the video, draw out your letter and see if you can come up with a design.

I would to have a go at doing several designs like I have.

Draw your initial in the middle and think about how you want to embellish yours.

Add notes, otherwise you might forget what your plan was.

I'll see you in a minute.

So this was my chosen design.

I quite like this.

My plan is to add buttons and sequins to my letter in the middle, to add some embroideries, some running stitch around the outside 'cause I quite like that.

And then I liked the idea of a border, I was thinking about that bag that we looked at and I thought, hmm maybe I could add a border to mine too.

And when I was looking, I found that I had lots of sequins.

So I'm going to add some sequins.

I actually really enjoy embroidering.

So I'm going to embroider some stars.

And then another row of running stitch, like, border around the outside.

I'm going to cover the letter in buttons and I'm going to add a border.

I've already said that, haven't I? Now, before you actually start sewing, it's quite useful to lay out what you've got just to double check you've got enough.

You might want to alter the spacering slightly.

So on this picture here, you can see I've cut out my initial and I've just laid the buttons I could have used out to check that they all fit.

And I've also used quite a pale colour to just outline where I want the sewing to go so it's nice and straight.

And I know exactly where I'm sewing, otherwise, it can get a little bit confusing when you're doing this.

Okay, mark lightly.

So don't use a dark colour 'cause you don't want really put this to show, you want it to be quite a light colour to where you are going to show.

And then when people look at it, they'll think, gosh that person is very clever.

Look, they can sew a lovely straight line, but actually you've got a line to guide you underneath.

But keep it nice and pale otherwise it's going to spoil your work.

So off you go, you're going to embellish your applique.

Use what you've got.

It doesn't matter if you haven't got everything that I've shown you.

Pause the video now and have fun.

Now, remember this could take some time.

So if you've only just, you get started and you think, oh, I need a rest now, pause, stop the video, watch the end of the lesson, and later in the week, when you get some spare time you can maybe come back and finish it.

Mine took me a whole evening of sewing to do so yours might take you that long too.

So don't panic if it's taking a long time, just do some of it now, and when you've had enough, you need a rest, start the rest of the lesson, finish off with me, and then you can finish it later on.

Can't wait to see what it looks like.

How did you get on? Did you manage to finish or have you just done part of it? Doesn't matter, you can always come back and finish it later on, can't you? This is my finished work.

You can see, can't you, I tried very hard to stick to my original plan.

I've added buttons to the outside, and I've added a border, and I've used the sequins.

I'm pleased with the colours I chose.

I like the red buttons and the fact that the red buttons match the border.

I like the fact I've got quite a limited colour palette, haven't I? I've got dark blue, pale blue and red.

And I haven't really used any other colours at all.

And I quite like that simple idea of not many colours.

I'm pleased I managed to keep the stitching very even.

If you look, my stitches are all roughly the same size.

And I'm glad that I added red stitching around the outside of the letter because it helps the letter stand out.

Before I'd done that it looked a little bit like it wasn't very important, but now it looks much better.

But it's a little bit of a shame that as I was sewing, the felt got slightly distorted, which has made it a little bit bumpy.

I think it's because I was putting so many buttons on it.

It sort of all got a little bit pulled slightly.

So you're going to use your sketchbook now and you're going to record what you think about your applique.

If you finished it, you might want to stick it into your book or you might just want to do a sketch.

You might be so proud of your applique that you're going to put it up somewhere.

You can put on your bedroom door, couldn't you? Or somewhere to admire it.

And just do a sketch in your sketchbook and record what you think about your work.

Go on, off you go then.

Well done for working so hard in this lesson and in all the other lessons.

I hope that now you've got a really good understanding of what textiles is and how versatile it is.

If you're really interested in this and you'd like to learn more, if you go on the internet, I'm sure you'd be able to find out lots and lots of other information about it too.

This is just a little taste of the broad range of things that you can do with textiles.

Remember in textiles, practise is everything.

The more you do it, the more you practise, the better and the more easier it gets and the more enjoyable it gets.

It's a little bit like riding a bicycle, isn't it? At first it's really, really hard and you have to think about everything.

And then after a while, you can enjoy the trees whizzing past and the breeze in your hair.

Anyway, it's been lovely teaching you.

Thank you ever so much for joining me and take care.

Enjoy your sewing.

I'd love to see what you've been doing.

Ask your parent or carer to share your work on the address below.