Tubular Chenille Stitch

This is one of my favourite stitches. It looks great in both flat and tubular; simple to do and makes up fast.

You can customise it by altering bead size and number of beads per row or round. The picture shows a flat chenille stitch bracelet in size 8/0 seed beads and a tubular chenille stitch rope in size 11/0 seed beads. For beginners, I would recommend using 2 colours of bead until you get the hang of it.

This tutorial covers tubular only; flat chenille stitch will be covered in a separate post. Also available as a free PDF download here or as a video tutorial here.

Ready to start beading? You will need:

• Seed beads 8/0 or 11/0 - colour A

• Seed beads 8/0 or 11/0 - colour B

• Fireline 6lb or 8lb, or your preferred thread

• Size 10 or 12 beading needle

• Snippers

Add a stopper bead, leaving a 4 or 5 inch tail.

Pick up 4 x A beads and bring down to stopper bead, sew through all 4 beads and the first bead again and tighten thread to form a circle.

Row 1: Pick up 2 x B, go through next A ... repeat to end. Step up by going through final A bead and first B bead on current row. Thread should be coming out between the two beads in the first pair.

Row 2: Pick up 1 x A, go through second B of current pair and first B of next pair ... repeat to end. Step up by going through final B bead and first A bead of this row.

THAT'S IT!

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 until desired length achieved, finishing on a Row 2. Tighten final row and reinforce by passing through all beads a couple of times. Fasten off and tie in loose ends.

*For the first couple of rows, the work looks quite flat. On rows 3 and 4, start encouraging the work into the tubular shape by keeping the tension quite taut. After row 5 or so it holds shape on it's own.