Beading 101–Ladder Stitch Tutorial

A Free Ladder Stitch Tutorial

The purpose of this post is to provide a free ladder stitch tutorial for beaders. Prior to the actual ladder stitch tutorial, I thought you would find it helpful if I provided some information on the stitch. The ladder stitch can be used alone. It can also be the foundation for other bead stitch techniques like the brick stitch or the herringbone stitch. Once you have created a beaded ladder stitch strip like the one shown in this free ladder stitch tutorial, then you can move on to the other stitches.

 Notes:

• To make it easier for you to see the tutorial, I used large seed beads (6/0)
• Make sure to keep your thread tension tight. This will help the beads to sit snug against each other and create a  tidy ladder stitch strip.

Stitch Tutorial

1. Thread the needle and pick up two beads leaving a tail of four inches. Tail (defn.) is the thread below the first bead you picked up.
2. Pass  the needle up through the bottom of the first bead you picked up.
3. Pass the needle down through the top of the second bead. Make sure to pull tight so that the beads are snug together and they sit side-by-side.
4. Pick up one bead and pass down through the top of the previous bead.
5. Pass up through the bottom of the bead you just added.
6. You will continue working the ladder stitch picking up one bead at a time until you have achieve the desired number of beads in your ladder stitch strip.