Tutorial: Curved Double Chevron Chain for Collars

One of my favorite ways to get the look and lightness of netting without a lot of pattern planning is with chevron chain. This versatile stitch can be easily altered with different bead counts to get a variety of beautiful nets, and is a great stitch for collars. In Ancient Worlds Modern Beads, two-hole beads are used to stack two separate chevron chains to get an elegant and slinky collar inspired by Egyptian queens. In this variation, we’re going to combine two chains directly for a perfectly curved collar with oodles of pattern potential.

You can make a double chevron chain with just one color of size 11/o seed beads. Here we’re going to use two colors to highlight the shared beads that will bring two chains together. Once you’ve mastered this stitch, it’s easy to incorporate more colors to the segments for gorgeous bands, stripes, or chevron patterns.

1. Attach a stop bead to a comfortable length of your favorite beading thread, leaving an 8 inch tail. Pick up 18 color A seed beads and slide them down to the stop bead. Stitch down through the first 3 beads again, and gently pull snug to form an upside-down teardrop shape.

(When thinking of patterns for future projects, remember that every 3 beads is a different segment of the chain. By alternating different colors in multiples of 3, you can create a variety of pretty patterns.)

2. Pick up 4 color B seed beads, and 6 A. Counting up from the 3 beads you just stitched through, skip 3 beads in the loop, and stitch through the following 3. (These are beads 13-15 from step 1.) Pull snug to form a new loop.

3. Pick up 9 color A beads, and stitch down through the 1st 3 color A beads added in step 2. Pull snug.

4. Pick up 4 color B, and 6 color A. Stitch up through beads 4-6 from step 3. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until your chain reaches the desired length, adding new thread as needed.

5. Attach a stop bead to a new length of thread, leaving an 8 inch tail. Pick up 9 color A beads, and stitch through the 4 color B in the first section of the previous chain. Pull snug.

6. Pick up 6 color A beads, and stitch down through the first 3 beads added in step 5. Pull snug to form the first loop of the new chain.

7. Pick up 5 color B seed beads, and 6 A. Stitch up through the 1st 3 beads added in step 6. Pull snug, then stitch through the 4 color B seed beads of the next loop in the previous chain.

8. Pick up 6 color A, and stitch down through the first 3 A added in the previous step. Pull snug to form the new half loop. Repeat steps 7 and 8 to complete the new chain. Add a clasp to the edges as desired, and weave in all remaining threads.

Happy beading!

Mortira

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