No Sew: Beaded Fleece Poncho

A confession: I actually had to do a little bit of sewing on this one, due to a fitting issue. I'll talk about that later.

The Beading

The fringe is made by cutting the fleece into 1/4 inch strips, 3 inches long. Fleece does not ravel, so it is very easy to make this fringe. Note that at the corners of the poncho hem, there will be a 3x3 inch square cut off, due to the fringe.

Then beads are strung onto adjacent pairs of fringe. And finally, around the hem, there is a second row of beading, catching one piece of fringe coming out of one bead, with another piece coming out of the adjacent fringe.

For those who have never done this kind of beading, here are some photos with detail.

I found that it was very convenient to have a supply of beads sitting in this lid from a popcorn tin:

The designer suggested using a small steel crochet hook to pull the fringe through the beads. Instead, I threaded a 6 inch or so length of crochet cotton through a large-eyed needle (a bodkin), and knotted it. It was pretty easy to loop a piece of fringe through the loop of the crochet cotton, and then insert the needle into the bead and pull the fringe through.

This photo shows that the crochet cotton has looped around a piece of fringe, and a bead has been threaded onto the crochet cotton.

This photo shows the fringe being pulled through the bead. It is about halfway through.

And the fringe is all the way through now.

Now it is time to thread the second fringe through the bead. It is a two-step process to minimize the bulk. If you were to try to pull two pieces of fringe through the bead at once, it would be very difficult, because there would be 4 layers of fringe in the bead opening, due to the fold. Even with this two-step process, there are 3 layers of fringe in the bead opening.

This photo shows that the crochet cotton has been looped around the second piece of fringe.

This photo shows that the needle has gone through the bead.

This photo shows the second fringe halfway through the bead.

This photo shows the second fringe has been completely pulled through the bead.

And finally, the two fringes and the bead are adjusted to line up nicely with the other fringes and beads.

The Neck Opening

• Cut a 3 inch square in the middle of the poncho.
• Cut 3 inch cuts into the poncho from this opening. The result will be kind of like a tic-tac-toe grid.
• Cut slits into the corner pieces for threading ribbon through both layers of the folded-over triangle.
• Fringe and bead the side pieces.

Here is a photo showing the various steps of creating the neck opening on a small piece of fleece (used for demonstration in my classroom).

Dealing with a Neck Fitting Probem

After thinking about the problem for some time, I decided to use some of the leftover fleece to function as a "compressor". I cut a 1/4" strip of fleece in the direction where the stretch was less. The strip was about 18" long, but could stretch to just under 24". I pinned it to the right side of the neckline, following the ends of the cut lines, and scrunching the poncho fabric under it. Then I zigzagged the strip to the poncho.

This photo shows that the strip has been completely sewn, and the neck opening is much smaller. The strip willl be hidden by the beaded fringe and the ribbon-tied flaps.

And one of my sewing students makes it

So she got all the materials. We did the appropriate cutting, making sure to cut the neck opening smaller- we made the center square 2 1/2 inches instead of 3 inches, and actually we should have made it even smaller.

And then we did the beading. She was astounded at how long the beading took. In the end, she only did one round of beads on the hem. And for the most part, she and I were both sitting at the table working on the beading (unless I was attending to the needs of another student in the class).

Finally, the poncho was done, and presented to her mother, who was quite pleased. The first photo shows the young girl trying it on before her mother showed up, and the second photo shows her mom proudly wearing it. (As usual, I am respecting the privacy of these individuals by not showing their faces.)

Conclusion

Try it!