How to Embroider With Beads

Use beaded embroidery to enhance any item.

Bead embroidery is a type of needlework that includes the addition of beads into traditional embroidery designs using regular embroidery stitches. If you are familiar with the stitches, adding the beads and creating a new and three-dimensional piece of clothing or wall hanging is relatively easy. Whether you use a pre-printed canvas or a counted cross-stitch pattern, after you master the technique, you can apply it to a wide variety of items.

Things You'll Need

• Embroidery pattern
• Canvas or cloth
• Beading or embroidery needle
• Embroidery thread
• Scissors
• Seed beads
• Embroidery hoop

Instructions

1. 

   Seed beads come in a wide variety of colors.

   Assemble your supplies. Separate your threads into colors. Purchase your seed beads to match the thread colors as closely as possible. Seed beads (size 11/0) work best as they come in a wide variety of colors. Confirm that your embroidery needle will easily pass through the bead since both embroidery and beading needles come in a variety of sizes. Select a needle that easily passes through the bead.

   Beads will vary in size and uniformity so allowances will need to be made while embroidering your project.

2. Place your cloth or canvas in the embroidery hoop. Stretch the material taut but not so tight as to stretch the cloth. Separate two to three strands from the thread and thread them through the eye of the needle. Knot the ends of the strings together.

3. Find the center of the pattern and your fabric. Place the threaded needle in the back of your fabric and push through the fabric to the front. Work one complete horizontal row at a time to allow for adjustments for the size of the beads. Work the stitches according to the pattern, adding beads as you go. For example, if you are working on a cross-stitch pattern, bring the needle and thread up in the lower right edge of the square, place five to six beads on the thread and bring it down through the top left of the square. Pull the thread taut, and bring the needle and thread up through the top right of the square; place five to six beads on the thread and bring it back down in the lower left of the square. This is the cross stitch design.

4. Continue stitching your project, adding beads to the stitches as you proceed. Use traditional stitches, and add beads as you work. For example, use a back stitch when making curves by coming up in front of the stitch, threading one bead and passing through the fabric in back of the bead. Change colors and stitches according to the pattern and directions. When you reach the end of a thread, flip your project over and knot the end of the thread to the back of previous stitches by passing it under the threads and bringing it up and through several times to make a knot.

Tips & Warnings

• Adding beads to any embroidery causes it to become much heavier than if it were worked only in thread.

References

• Beadage: Bead Embroidery
• Bead Wrangler: Making Bead Embroidery Samples

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Craft Passion: Instructions for Stitches