How to Bead Stitch: St Petersburg Stitch

Basic St Petersburg Stitch

Note: this article has been updated with new information and to be found at:
Beading: St Petersburg Stitch (recommended)


St Petersburg stitch is something that I learnt before and then promptly forgot, much to my chargrin.  So this time, I have drawn up a simple pictorial.

Basic St Petersburg Stitch - How To

Once you get the basic St Petersburg stitch, then the variations you can ply on them will be pretty endless.

Samples of St Petersburg Stitch and variations

As the variations that one can try is quite endless, I will only be showing a small sampling as basic possibilities.

This photo is of a basic St Petersburg Stitch.  I have used large beads here (4mm) just so that it is all easier to see.

Curving St Petersburg Stitch I

This next image shows one of the ways of making your St Petersburg stitch curve.  No additional beads have been used.  However as you can see (refer to first Basic St Petersburg illustration above), instead of threading back into the 2nd bead from the edge bead, you thread it up from the bead immediately above the edge bead.







Using different (shapes or size) of the edge beads will also produce interesting results.

Curving St Petersburg Stitch II

I find that the St Petersburg Stitch has a "yearning" to curve - so this is one advantage that can be made use of.

The bottom sample shows the basic St Petersburg stitch - it has a natural (tendency to) curve.

The upper sample is made with different beads to accentuate this natural curve.

The outer curve has (seed bead + drop bead + seed bead) as its edge bead.
The inner curve has one smaller (3mm) bicone.

To firm up the piece, thread along the inner curve.  Here I have added a seed bead between each of the 3mm bicone.

The below Ms Seaside Squiggle earrings  (CH0192) shows the use of St Petersburg Stitch.

Ms Seaside Squiggle earrings using St Petersburg Stitch

Now I shall go back to playing with other beading & wirework techniques but this basics in St Petersburg Stitch should be sufficient as a memory jogger for me when I need to refresh my memory.  Hope you enjoyed this as well!