This Herringbone Stitch or Ndebele Stitch bead weaving article is meant for beginners as well as anyone looking for a quick memory refresh. First the refresher, then the tutorials.
Src: www.gq.com
As a mnemonic aid, it is useful to know that Herringbone stitch gets its name from how the pattern resembles fishbones. This stitch is also commonly found in embroidery and knitting.
Memory Jogger for Herringbone Stitch
Beading
- foundation (starting) row is made up of Ladder Stitch
- even number of beads per row
- each row thereafter, beads are worked in pairs
Characteristics of HerringboneStitch
The Ndebele/Flat Herringbone stitch is:
- quite rigid, row-wise
- very flexible, length-wise
Herringbone Stitch is Good For:
The herringbone stitch lends itself very well to increases and decreases. This characteristic makes it wonderful for:
- making frills
- creating various shapes
Refer: how to make increases in Herringbone Stitch
Quick Revision Summary on How to Make the Flat Herringbone Stitch
Tips and Tricks to the Herringbone/Ndebele Stitch
The “tricks” in the Herringbone stitch comes at the end and start of each row. Remember to:
You can of course flip the work around (so stop bead is at top). But that might not always be possible, e.g. in the middle of a project.
(This prevents having thread showing on the outside edge of beads)
Tip: Neatening and Tightening the Edges
This is optional. The ending edge of the herringbone stitch might seem a bit loose and “fray-ish”. You can easily tighten this edge by weaving your thread along the penultimate row of beads.
Tutorials on how to do the Herringbone Stitch
There are a number of these tutorials out there. So I am not going to bother to write another one from scratch. However I have researched what I think are the easiest and the clearest.
Leslie Rogalski’s Flat Herringbone Stitch (from Artbeads)
The first part of this tutorial where she draws on a graph to show how the threads are woven is especially useful and clear.
However the rest of the tutorial is a bit different from how I do it. I find it a bit confusing and less satisfying as 2 rows of herringbone are made before tightening occurs. Hence the work is floppy for a longer time (which is always no fun). But the first part of the video is very clear and recommended.
This accompanying Flat Herringbone Stitch pdf file – written instructions with diagrams (from ArtBeads) is also very useful.
In particular, it shows diagrammatically and clearly, how to begin a new row (as discussed in the Tips and Tricks section above).
