Tutorial - Beaded Backstitch

I thought perhaps a little tutorial would be in order for this Beaded Backstitch since I have only ever seen it in Helan Pearce's excellent book, "Beaded Dimensional Embroidery".
I have used masking tape to keep my line straight as I am using this stitch to form the strings on Leslie's ornaments. Start by stitching a row of beads leaving a space between the beads about the size of your beads. It is rather late while I am writing this so I hope this makes sense. In other words, you will attach a bead, then leave a space the size of a bead empty and then stitch the next bead on and so on. You can see this hopefully where I have started to remove the masking tape.

Now you are going to bring your needle to the front again at the top of the first bead. Thread your needle down through the bead and pull the thread through. This gets you to the right place to start. Now thread three beads onto your needle and from one side go down through the next bead in the stitched row of beads. Pull your thread through and you should have a little semi-circle of beads on one side of the beaded row.

Thread on three more beads and from the other side go down through the next bead in the stitched row of beads like a backstitch. Continue on back and forth from one side to the other of your stitched line of beads, working your way along using three beads each time, backstitching from one side and then the other til you reach the end. Secure our thread.

Here are the three lines of this stitch that I have done to "hang" Leslie's ornaments. I think it makes a nice springy string for them!

Comments

Anonymous said…

These are wonderful, Kerry--love the concept and the beading is beautiful. Lynn, SoCal

May 26, 2009 at 8:42 AM

kerrykatiecakes2 said…

Thanks Lynn - you are such a sweetie!
Hugs,
Kerry

May 26, 2009 at 8:48 AM

Bear said…

Kerry
this is such a pretty stitch and I love it
love n hugs bear xoxoxoxo

June 8, 2009 at 2:11 AM

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