During the Tudor Era long beads were used as decorations on Men’s and Women’s hats and as closures. Here is how to make them.
In this portrait of Henry VIII sixth wife Catherine Parr you can the the long beads used as decoration on her hat and as closures on her sleeves. Each half was made up of a barrel bead, a round or nearly round bead (about the same diameter as the barrel bead) and a small round bead at the end.
This is a child’s doublet that I made using the beads as a closure down the center front.
This is a close up of two of the sets of beads. They are made of one barrel bead, one round bead and a small 2 mm bead on the end. I also added a flat square bead. one for each set to help span the bias binding that I used to edge the doublet opening. I alternated the addition of this bead from the left to the right not for any reason other than I figured it would look good.
If you are using the beads only as a decoration and they do not need to close anything you can sew then onto your hat with any metallic thread. But if you are going to use then as closures you should use thin metallic elastic cord like this. If you are using them to close your doublet I recommend that you sew all the beads on one side with a single strand of the cord. Starting at the bottom and going towards the top. That is why I opted to use a bias edging on this bodice. I could sew the beads on and them cover the cord in the back (inside) with the bias.
I sewed the bias onto the edge of the front then added the beads and then by hand I whip stitched the bias on the inside of the doublet thus, covering the cord. There are no knots in the cord so when you pull on the beads so you can slip the beads from the other side between the two strands of the cord you can pull enough so they can slip between.
Here is an example of a set of beads that would work. I barrel bead 5mm X 15mm, a 6mm X 2mm rondelle and a 2mm crimp bead. Crimp beads work for this application because the hole is large enough for the elastic cord.
When you string them if you are not alternating as I did you can use the elastic cord on one side and regular metallic cord on the other. You always string the cord up the barrel bead and the round bead then thru the crimp bead and back thru the round bead and the barrel bead. Then up to the next set of beads.
Here is another example of a barrel bead that is long enough 23mm X 7mm so all you need to add is a crimp bead.
Here is an example of a set where the barrel part is made up of three gold beads. In the middle is a barrel bead 11mm X 6mm, either side of that are rondelles 9mm X 4mm. At the end is a round 6mm silver bead and then a gold crimp bead.
With this one is similar in that the barrel is made up of three barrel beads 6mm X6mm. The outside two are the same and the middle one is different. Any comb will work as long as the grouping is about 20mm to 25mm. You can glue the barrel section together with E6000 just make sure you do not get glue in the hole. In face if you look at Catherine’s hat you will see the two halves of the are together. Usually when you see this set up they look more like the ones on her sleeves and at a 45° angle even on hats. They do dangle down but on hers they seem to be tack tight to the hat.