Hi all....I am very new to all of this - I will be making my daughter's dress for her first competition - may or may not have crystals depending on the style (depending on the music, etc!)
Is there one size crystal that is used more often than others? Do you usually mix them up?? How do I even decide on a pattern??? Is there a tutorial for newbies like me somewhere???
Pros & Cons of gluing or hotfix?? I would appreciate ANY help I can get...thanks

My girlfriend has jewelled a lot of dresses. Size 6 is the most common she uses. She uses larger sizes to spice up the pattern.

They make a special glue that holds well but stretches under the jewel. Larger fabric stores carry several varieties depending on the material it's used on.

Make sure you put a paper grocery sack or layers of newspaper under the fabric so you don't glue the sides together.

Layout your jewels in the pattern on the dress, then glue the jewels one at a time.

Use your imagination on the patterns. That's what's nice about laying the jewels out dry first. You can adjust until it pleases your eye.

Don't worry about being too exact. These are show dresses and are expected to look good only from a distance.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

thanks for answering my post ) Is that 6mm or 6ss?

Size 6SS crystals are minute.

I use 20SS (roughly 4.5 to 5mm) crystals for most stoning, occasionally mixed with 30SS crystals (which are larger). Sometimes I'll use 16SS crystals. Rarely anything smaller (I am using some 12SS crystals on a project to provide some very subtle scatter stoning, though.)

Re gluing methods, I personally prefer to use regular glue vice hot-fix. For most stretch fabric I use Gem-Tac, but for gluing on mesh I use E-6000. E-6000 is extremely smelly and must be used in an area with good ventilation. However, it dries extremely quickly. It's also more of a thick gel (think thicker than toothgel) so it doesn't ooze through the mesh like Gem-Tac can do. To aid in setting the stones, I bought some toothpicks with a glob of slightly tacky wax on one end. I make my glue spots, then pick the stone up with the toothpick and place it on the glue spot, then release the stone with a twist of the toothpick. Once you've got a feel for the size of the glue spot and the stone placement action, the stoning goes quite fast.

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Sorry. 6mm

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

I crystal all of my own dresses and only use Swarovski crystals.

That being said, it really depends on what I'm crystalling which size I use. For smaller places (such as around the neckline) I use 16SS. I also am using 16ss for scattering the skirt of my new freeskate dress because the pattern in the dress is smaller.

For normal crystalling, I use 20SS. I really never go above 20SS. Usually I use these for the main patterns, rarely detail work.

As far as affixing the crystals, I prefer gluing. I lay out the pattern dry (and when I say pattern that means either a pre-made pattern, or more likely, something that I've layed out out of my own making). I use tweezers to pick up the stone, then cover the back with glue using a stiff brushed paintbrush (the kind little kids use for crafts). It takes a bit to get the feel of how much glue to use, but a general rule is just so its opaque, not globbed but so you can't see the original backing. Like jenlyon said, once you get used to it, it goes very quickly!

Good luck!

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To all who offered advice; thanks! It definitely has helped. (I also found out today that my friend has a serger that she is willing to let me use too ) She just made my life easier!)