Beading Techniques 1: Single Line

Do you like beaded costumes?

Well I do…so much! And a dear Sparkly Belly subscriber requested a beading and applique tutorial, and I thought it’s a great idea, since I have been having fun making appliques the last couple of weeks myself. So you will see some simple techniques that I have found useful in decorating my belly dance costumes in the next few weeks. In this video, you are going to see how to bead a single line.

For beading a single line, you need:

Beads of your choice – I will be using seed beads and sequins. It is helpful to have little beads in a small tray, which makes it easier to pick up beads and keeps them in 1 place.

Beading needle – beading needles are a lot thinner than regular sewing needles, because the holes of some beads such as seed beads and bugle beads are very small.

Beading thread

1. Beading Techniques for Short Line

First, thread your needle and make a knot. I like to make it double thread for extra durability.

Put your needle through from below the fabric. I like to go in and out a couple of times to make sure the thread does not slip out.

Pick up some beads. Load 4-6 beads at a time. Place your string of beads straight against the line you want to make, and put the needle through the fabric.

If you want to make a short line, this is all there is to it! You can use the same technique, and put sequins in the mix – sequin-seed bead-sequin-seed bead-sequin-seed bead… – and make an interesting look.

Or try different colours and shapes of beads.

You can use this technique to make shapes or go around a stone like this one to embelish the stone. This one is just a black seed bead – silver bugle bead – black seed bead, starting from the edge of the stone and go outward. And I just went around the stone.

2. Beading Techniques for Long Line

If you want a long line of beads, just follow the same steps of beading a short line.

Then bring your needle back up from a half-way point of the line you just created. So in this case, between 3rd and 4th beads. Then put your needle through the last 3 beads again.

This makes the last beads face the direction of the line, instead of facing down the fabric.

Then from here, pick up another 6 beads.

Bring your needle back to the half-way point, and put your needle through again. And repeat until you reach your desired length.

You can use this technique to create simple lines, go around a stone to frame it, or frame a rhinestone chain, and add more shine to your costume.

Hope this was helpful, and in the next video, you will see how to create a twisty look with beads, which is used often in cabaret style belly dance costume.

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Thanks for reading, and keep sparkling!