How to add beads to needlepoint

Where a bead goes, and when

A bead takes the place of one tent stitch, the small slanting stitch over one intersection of the canvas, where two canvas threads cross. It is sewn straight onto the canvas with a stitch of its own, so while you stitch the rest of the piece, leave empty every intersection that is to carry a bead. Anyone who can make a tent stitch can sew on a bead: only the needle and the thread change.

Add the beads last. A scroll frame rolls up the canvas that is not being worked, and the layers of the roll press on any beads rolled up with it. Padding the roll to protect them leaves it uneven, which can pull the canvas out of shape. Work a piece that will be beaded on stretcher bars, light wooden bars that hold the whole canvas flat and taut and roll none of it.

The exception is a decorative stitch that has beads as part of its pattern, which may be diagrammed with the beads first. If the canvas has a stitch guide, the written instructions for stitching that canvas, follow its order.

Which beads fit which mesh

Use size 11 glass seed beads on 13 or 14 mesh canvas and size 14 or 15 on 18 mesh. (Mesh is the number of holes in an inch of canvas.)

Seed bead is the name for any small bead, and the usual ones are round, like tiny rings. They are sold by a size number that runs backward: a bigger number means a smaller bead, so a size 14 is smaller than a size 11. Bead makers measure in millimeters, so the table does too.

The diameter is measured across a round bead, at right angles to its hole. In each pairing the bead is as wide as the step from one hole to the next, or a little wider, so beads on neighboring intersections sit close together. Size numbers differ a little from maker to maker, and for 18 mesh a size 14 (1.4 to 1.6 mm) and a size 15 do the same job.

A larger bead also works where beads stand alone among stitches, with room to be wider than their intersections: size 11 on 18 mesh, or size 8 (about 3 mm) on 13 or 14 mesh. Keep to the table's sizes where beads fill a large area or a whole canvas.

Seed beads also come as short tubes, which are more even in shape than round beads and cost more. A tube bead is smaller than a round bead of the same size number: a size 11 is about 1.6 mm across as a tube and about 2.0 mm as a round bead. Buy tube beads when a stitch guide asks for them, and go by the diameter in millimeters when the fit matters. A stitch guide may also ask for bugle beads, which are long, narrow tubes.

Some bead colors can fade in the sun, be affected by heavy friction, or change with bleach or detergent over time. Look for marks against such colors on the maker's color list before beading something that will be handled a lot or will sit in a window.

Needle and thread

The tapestry needle that does the rest of the stitching is too thick for a seed bead: a size 22, the size for 18 mesh, is about 0.94 mm thick, and the hole in a size 11 bead is about 0.8 mm.

Use a beading needle, which is slender, with an eye hardly wider than its shaft. Sizes 10 and 12 are the ones most used, and the higher number is the finer needle: a size 10 is about 0.46 mm thick and a size 12 about 0.36 to 0.4 mm. Start with a size 10 and change to a 12 if it sticks in a small bead. The holes vary from bead to bead, so buy a pack of mixed needle sizes, and set aside any bead that no needle will pass.

Most beading needles have a sharp point, and some have a rounded point like a tapestry needle's. They come short, about 1 1/4 inches (3.2 cm), and long, about 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm). The short kind suits single beads, and the long suits stringing a row.

Beading thread is strong and smooth, and thin enough to pass through a bead more than once. Waxed nylon beading thread is a good choice. Give each length a tug before you thread it, which straightens it and helps the beads sit better. One strand of silk, or of stranded cotton (embroidery floss, which is six fine strands that pull apart), can be used instead, though neither is as strong. Draw cotton across a cake of beeswax first: wax guards the thread against rough glass inside a bead and makes it easier to handle.

Choose thread the color of the bead, or the color of the canvas that the bead will cover. Thread shows through a translucent bead and changes its color, so try the two together first.

The stitch below uses the thread double. Cut about 36 inches (90 cm), pass one end through the eye of the needle and bring the two ends together, with the needle at the fold, so that only one thickness goes through the eye. That gives a working length of about 18 inches (45 cm); longer threads tangle. Only thread that sews on beads is doubled like this: thread that covers the canvas is not, because a folded strand covers less well.

Beads roll. Pour a few onto a piece of felt, or into a shallow case with a sticky lining, and pick each one up with the point of the needle.

How to attach a bead

This method is called the lasso, or lassoing. It is a tent stitch with a bead on it, then a second stitch in the same two holes that goes around the bead and not through it. The direction of the stitch decides how the bead leans, so read the next section before beading more than a few.

1. Double the thread in the beading needle and knot the two ends together. This knot stays on the back, though ordinary stitching leaves no knot there.
2. On the back of the canvas, run the needle under a few stitches that are already there, close to where the first bead will go, then back under them the other way. Beading thread is slippery, and the second pass holds it.
3. Bring the needle up in the hole at the lower left of the empty intersection.
4. Pick up one bead on the point of the needle and slide it down the thread until it rests on the canvas.
5. Take the needle down in the hole at the upper right, as for a tent stitch, and pull the thread through. The bead is on, but it is loose.
6. Come up again in the first hole and take the needle down again in the second, this time beside the bead and not through it.
7. Pull through slowly. Just before the stitch tightens, part the two strands and lay one along the left side of the bead and one along the right.
8. Pull the stitch snug. The bead is held between the two strands and cannot flop.
9. For the next bead, start again from step 3. If it is not close by, first run the needle under a stitch or two on the back: a long run of thread across the back works loose, and the last bead sewn loosens with it.
10. To end a thread, run the needle under a few stitches on the back, then back the other way, and trim it close.

On a piece that will be handled a lot, run the needle under a stitch on the back after every bead, so that each bead is held on its own and one that catches cannot loosen the rest.

Which way the beads lie

The hole of the bead runs along the stitch that holds it: in the steps above, from lower left to upper right. A round seed bead is wider across than it is long along its hole, so its broad side lies across the thread, and the bead looks as if it leans the other way from the tent stitches around it. To make beads lean the way the tent stitches do, sew them from lower right to upper left. A tent stitch made in that direction is called a reverse tent stitch, and a stitch guide may ask for beads to be sewn on with it.

Not every bead sits the same way, so try it before beading the piece. Sew three or four beads each way on a scrap of the same canvas, or on the bare canvas outside the design, and look at them beside your stitching. Choose one direction and keep to it for the whole area. Beads sewn in two directions lie at two angles, and where beads are spaced apart the direction can decide whether they read as separate dots or join into diagonal stripes.

To make a bead sit straight, with its hole vertical, attach it with a cross stitch. Use a single thread, because it goes through the bead twice. It has no pair of ends to knot as in step 1: start it without a knot, fastened on the back as in step 2. Sew the bead on from lower left to upper right, as in steps 3 to 5. Then come up at the lower right, pass through the bead again from its lower end, and go down at the upper left. Each end of the bead is now held from two holes, so the bead settles between them, centered on the intersection, and needs no lasso.

Accents, lines and whole areas

Beads reflect light and draw the eye, so most often they are accents: a single bead for an eye, a star, a berry or the center of a flower. No special pattern is needed, because a bead can go wherever a design has a tent stitch. Where a canvas has a stitch guide, the guide lists the beads and says where they go.

A whole area can be beaded too, with a lassoed bead on every intersection: 169 beads to the square inch on 13 mesh and 324 on 18 mesh. Beads are usually sold by weight. There are about 110 round size 11 beads to the gram and about 250 of size 15, so a square inch takes about 1.5 grams of size 11 beads on 13 mesh and about 1.3 grams of size 15 beads on 18 mesh.

Beads can also fill the gaps in an open stitch, which is a good way to bead a large area. Skip tent stitch is tent stitch on every other intersection, and a bead can go in each one left empty.

A row of beads sewn on one by one can be steadied by a second pass. After every three to five beads, or once at the end of the line, come up where the group began, pass the needle through the beads and go down again. Small beads may not have room for it.

A line of beads can also be strung and laid on. Bring the thread up at one end of the line, string the beads, and take the thread down at the other end. Then, with the same thread, come up beside the string, cross over the thread between two beads and go down on the other side. Make one of these small stitches after every three or four beads. This is called couching.

Other ways of beading you will see named

Stitch guides name several other ways of sewing beads on, and a guide that uses one diagrams it.

• Brick beading, also called bricked beading or beaded brick stitch. The beads are sewn on with brick stitch, an upright stitch over two canvas threads with each stitch stepped half a stitch from the next, one bead to a stitch. Use a bead a little large for the mesh, size 11 on 18 mesh, so that each bead sits over a hole of the canvas.
• Stitching a bead twice. The stitch that put the bead on is repeated, through the bead again. It is used in place of the lasso.
• Messy beading. Several beads go on one stitch, piled on in no set order. Three size 11 beads to a stitch make a raised ring around the center of a flower.
• Piggyback and stacked beads. A small bead rides on a larger one, such as a size 11 on a size 6. For a stack, come up where the stack is to stand and thread on its beads. Then skip the top bead, take the needle back down through the rest, and pull gently until the stack stands up.
• Basketweave beading, or woven effect beading. Each bead takes a second pass of thread that turns it to lie either horizontal or vertical, and the two alternate so that the beads look woven. On 14 mesh, size 10 tube beads, 2.2 mm across, crowd when a large area is beaded this way: work every sixth row in size 11 tube beads, 1.6 mm across, to leave room.

Sequins, charms and buttons

Sequins go on with a beading needle too. On 18 mesh, where the holes are 1.4 mm apart, a 4 mm sequin is a little under three stitches across and a 6 mm sequin a little over four. Allow about a stitch more when you choose a size: four stitches for a 4 mm sequin and five for a 6 mm one. On 13 mesh, where the holes are just under 2 mm apart, the same two sequins are about two stitches and about three stitches across.

For a row of overlapping sequins, start at the bottom. Sew each sequin down with two stitches, one to the upper right and one to the upper left, each running from the sequin's own hole over its edge to a canvas hole clear of the rim. The two make a V over the top of the sequin. Lay the next sequin over that V, and continue up the row. Where the next hole on the diagonal is clear of the rim, the two are a tent stitch and a reverse tent stitch: on 13 mesh that hole is 2.8 mm from the sequin's own, and the rim of a 4 mm sequin is 2 mm out. On 18 mesh it is 2 mm away, on the rim of a 4 mm sequin, and on either mesh it lies under a 6 mm one, so there each stitch must be longer, to reach a hole the sequin does not cover.

A bead can also hold a sequin down: a size 14 bead holds a 2 mm sequin, and a size 11 bead hides it.

A button or a charm goes on after the stitching, sewn through its own holes or loop. A button with a shank on its back takes four stitches, each slanting a different way, to hold it steady, and may still tilt a little. A charm that hangs from one hole or loop swings as the piece is moved. To steady it, take a stitch across another part of it, such as one arm of a star, in thread the color of the stitching underneath.

What goes wrong

• A bead flops, or leans out of line. The thread holding it is slack. Pull every stitch snug, as in step 8, and fasten the thread on the back before carrying it any distance, as in step 9.
• Rows of beads look uneven. The usual cause is uneven tension: some stitches were pulled harder than others. Working on a frame helps.
• The thread frays or breaks. A sharp edge inside the hole of a bead cuts thread. Throw that bead out.

Finishing a beaded piece

Keep beads off the outermost rows of the design. At the edge of an ornament the stitching wraps a little way around the board inside it, and the cord that goes around the edge can hide the outermost stitches.

Where a design has beads at its edge, ask the finisher, the person who turns a stitched canvas into an ornament, a pillow or a belt, before you bead them. Finishers need stitching to work with at the edge: they ask for one to a few rows of plain background beyond the beads, even where they want no extra rows otherwise.

A beaded piece that has pulled out of square goes to a finisher or a needlework shop to be blocked: blocking dampens the piece and pins it square.

Looking after it

Do not wash a beaded piece, and never put it into water or a cleaning solution. Clean beadwork as little as possible, and give a piece that needs more than dusting to a conservator.

To dust a beaded piece, first make sure that every bead, sequin and button is secure. Then follow the dusting step in how to clean needlepoint, which vacuums at low suction through a piece of window screen laid over the needlepoint.