Sequins seem to be all over the place this season. Blame it on Balmain. The problem for me is that they usually seem a little too glamorous for daily wear. A sequined mini-dress is just not something that would fit into my wardrobe unless I get a job as a go-go dancer. Maybe that job would pay for a $795 Helmet Lang sequined silk top. But until I improve my dance moves I wanted to enjoy a little sparkle and shine, so I decided to make my own spin on this fun trend.

Materials:
Sequin trim (about 6 yards)
A t-shirt (Mine was very stretchy burnout tee, which made it difficult to sew the sequins in a straight line. Thicker and less stretchy material is probably much easier to work with.)
Thread
Needle
Chalk or fabric pencil/pen

Methods:
This tutorial is kind of short on photos, but it’s pretty self-explanatory.

1. Sketch out your words/design on your shirt with chalk or a fabric pencil.

2. Lay out the sequins on your chalked design and pin them in place.

3. Hand-sew them down. I tried various ways of doing this and found that what worked best was to bring the needle up the hole of one sequin and go down the hole of the adjacent one every few sequins. Yes, this takes awhile. Fabric glue might be easier but I don’t know how durable it would be.

I was using red thread just for illustration purposes. This section is actually already sewn down with black thread, but as you can tell, you can’t see it.

Results:

The front:

and the back:

The lettering is actually continuous from the front to the back. Other ideas for opposing concepts to put on a shirt: love/hate, war/peace, soft/hard, buy/sell, make/break. I’m sure you can come up with some other good ones. Have fun and shine on!