Seed Beading 101: How to Make a Brick Stitch

Cut a piece of thread to a comfortable length for you to work with. The longer your thread, the farther you can work before you will have to add thread. Almost double your thread to make it easier to work with but do leave a tail so you are working with only a single thread.

Pick up two beads on your needle and pass the thread through the beads a couple of times to secure them side by side. Pick up another bead then pass the needle back through the last bead and then through the new bead again, securing it in place. Continue doing this until you have all the beads you need for your pattern. This will be the ladder stich creating the foundation row for the brick stitch.

Pick up one bead then pass the needle under the thread between the first two beads on the foundation row. Pull the thread and bring the bead up into place. It should be sitting over the first two beads in the foundation row and centered over the thread between the two beads. Bring the needle up through the bottom of the bead and tighten the thread to hold the bead securely in place. Your thread will now be coming out of the top of the bead.

Pick up a bead then pass the needle under the thread between the second and third beads in the foundation row. Repeat Step 3 until you have completed the row.

Turn the piece over and repeat Step 3 for the length of the piece. You will now be working in the threads of the first row that you added on top of the foundation row. At the end of each row, turn and work back across the piece. You will notice that you will have one less bead on every row and your work will form a pyramid shape.

Note: When increasing in brick use the following process:

1. After the foundation row, or any completed row, to do a row of increase start the row by adding two beads onto the thread instead of one. Go under the thread between the last two beads of the previous row and up through the first bead added, down through the second bead that was added, and up through the first bead that was added. Continue on in regular brick stitch for the entire row.

2. End the row by adding on one more bead than what you would normally do in Brick Stitch. Do this by: Put a bead on the thread, go under the last bead added and under the same thread of the previous row that the last bead was anchored to, back up the new bead that was added, down through the previous bead and back up the new bead. The row ends with a bead a 1/2 step longer on both ends of the previous row.