Beading Basics-Herringbone Stitch

Terri Gable: Hi! I am Terri Gable, owner of Studio Baboo, a Big Little Bead Store. In this clip, we are going to show you how to do herringbone stitch. And very much like it's called, it has a little herringbone effect. You get a little chevron effect with the stitch. It's done entirely differently than the other two stitches we showed you today. I am using a larger bead today, so that you can clearly see the stitches in a light colored thread that will contrast. Now the herringbone stitch actually starts with a base of ladder stitch. We are going to pick up two beads, we are going to stitch back through the first bead we put on, pull that snug. You want them to lay side by side with their holes going top to bottom. My first bead, this is my second bead. I am going to needle down through the second bead. Pull that snug. Pick up another bead. Thread is coming out of the bottom of that bead. So I am going through the top. You can see the new bead there. Just encourage that new bead to go into position and stitch up through. Continue stitching following this pattern until you reach the end of the row. Now with herringbone stitch, you want an even number of beads. And here is my little ladder stitch base. Now my little pale on my stop bead tell me this is the bottom but my stitching thread is also coming out of the bottom. For this stitch that is not so critical, we are just going to turn it over and we can use this side as our top. So in herringbone stitch, you work with two beads at a time.

We are going to pick up two beads and a needle down through the second bead on our bottom row. I will pull that snug. You can see they are going to sit side by side. They are coming up through the third bead on the bottom row. Pick up two beads and go down through the fourth bead. I see then sitting apart like that. We are going to come up. Pick up two beads. Just going to move my stop bead out the way a little bit and go down and there is our first row. For the last stitch, I do something a little different. We have our two beads on the thread. We are going to catch under this thread that is going between the two beads on the base row and now you are going to needle up through the last bead on that row. Pull that snug and there you can see we have our first row. Our first two rows. For the third row, once we have made our turn. Again, we are going to pick up two beads. We are going to stitch down through just one bead in one row. And then up through the next bead in the bottom row. Again two beads, down and up and now for our turning row, we are going to pick up two beads. We are going to stitch under the thread going through the last two beads on the bottom row. And then come up through this bead on the outside edge and we are ready to work our fourth row across. And that's the way we do herringbone stitch. In the next clip, I am going to show you how to correct mistakes, add a new thread and weave in your old thread when you have finished your piece.