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Tools for Adding Beads to Cross Stitch

January 11, 2025 by Sarah White

It’s always fun to add a little something extra to your cross stitch patterns, regardless of whether the project actually calls for it.

One way to make a cross stitch design a little more special is to add beads. Some patterns are written for incorporating beads, but it’s always up to you if you want to add them even if the pattern doesn’t call for them. They’re fun to use for eyes, the centers of flowers, to dot the letters with dots on them or just to add decoration beyond the cross stitching.

If you’ve never worked with beads before you might be a little intimidated, but, as with most things, if you have the right tools it will make it so much easier.

I haven’t done a lot of stitching with beads (another thing to try this year!) but Kat at Catkin and Lillie has, and they’ve got a great post all about tools that will make beading on cross stitch that much easier.

I don’t want to spoil it for you because you should click over there and check out all of their suggestions for the best needles, thread and other tools, but I do want to highlight the suggestion to use invisible thread rather than regular embroidery floss when adding beads to your cross stitch.

It’s not literally invisible but it is sort of translucent and hard to see when you stitch with it. Of course that can be a negative because it’s not that easy to see while you’re stitching or if you need to fix a mistake, but it’s a great tool to use if you’re working with different colors of beads in the same project.

Head to Catkin and Lillie to find all their tips and tools to make beading cross stitch easier.

Have you ever used beads in cross stitch? I’d love to hear any tips you might have.

[Photo: Catkin and Lillie]

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Have you read?

Designer Spotlight: TesLime Cross Stitch

If your cross stitch tastes run to anime, fantasy, Disney, gnomes and the like, you’ll want to check out TesLime Cross Stitch on Etsy. This Dublin-based Etsy shop boasts more than 1,000 cross stitch patterns, with a strong pop culture bent.

The largest category in the shop is Disney, and there’s a separate Disney princess category, so there’s nearly 300 Disney themed cross stitch patterns in all. Some of these are chibis but a lot of them are pretty direct copies of Disney characters. Do with that what you will.

There’s also a large fantasy section that’s heavy on Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, dragons, aliens and trolls. In the hero section you’ll find Star Wars, Harley Quinn and the Joker, the Avatar, and Marvel characters. And in anime, there’s lots of Pokemon, Attack on Titan and Ghibli-inspired designs, to name a few.

The thing that caught my eye in this shop wasn’t any of that, though. It was sardines.

There are actually several different patterns in this shop of cans of sardines. I don’t really know why, but they’re just so weird and silly that’s what I had to share. In particular this one, where the little fish are wearing little shirts. Why? Again, I don’t know, but it’s kind of cute, right?

This design is 100 by 130 stitches and uses 21 colors. It comes out to 7.14 by 9.29 inches, or 18.14 by 23.59 cm, when stitched on 14 count fabric (the pattern includes measurements for some other counts, too, if you want to make it smaller).

And all of that barely scratches the surface. There are more than 100 Christmas cross stitch patterns (these are heavy on Disney, too). A steampunk raven. A large collection of gnomes.

I think you’re just going to have to go check it out for yourself and see what strikes you. If you end up buying one of their patterns, I’d love to hear what you chose! Check them out at www.etsy.com/shop/TesLimeArt on Etsy.

[Photo: TesLime Cross Stitch]

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