Beaded Berries Tutorial

I decided last night that I needed to make some beaded Christmas berries so thought I should share how I did it, since I was pleased with them for turning out the way I wanted. I am starting to feel the pinch of limited stash here at the campsite so I used what was available: some nasty pink plastic pony beads, half a package of Mill Hill red seed beads and some Kreinik Silk Serica thread. You will also need a sewing needle, beading needle and some beading thread. I used Fireline.

I started out by covering the beads with the silk thread by simply going up through the hole in the bead (leaving a long tail), around the bead, back up through the hole and so on until it was completely covered. No more nasty pink plastic! lol I left a long tail at the beginning and end to use to attach the beads. I actually thought about stopping at this point since I like the beads this way with the sheen of the silk.

The next step was to thread up the beading needing with my Fireline and bury a small knot in all the threads inside the hole of the bead. Then it was simply a matter of threading beads on the needle (eight worked for this size) and around the bead and then back up through the hole, thread on more beads, and so on. The second bead worked the best and on that one I used eight beads, then seven, and continued alternating in that pattern. This way the beads seemed to nestle into each other nicely.

And here they are attached where I wanted them! To attach them I threaded the two long tails of silk thread I left on each through to the back of my fabric and tied them together with a good knot. These turn out very pretty and they remind me of that candied Christmas fruit you see. Have fun!