Seed Beading 386 Wavy American Flag Bracelet - YouTube

Hi, I'm Allie with the Potomac Bead Company

and I'm going to show you how to make this cute little patriotic bracelet using either 8/0 or 11/0 seed beads.

This is actually a pattern bracelet and it's peyote stitch

and then I'll show you kind of the little trick to getting the wave in it.

Here's just a little section that is also straight so you can do it either way.

Again, you can use either 8/0 seed beads or 11/0 seed beads. If you're first starting out seed bead wise and you're not sure how

to do peyote, just pause this video look at our peyote video and learn how to do peyote first before starting this video.

I'll go over it a little bit with you

but it'll go much faster if you learn peyote before you start doing this bracelet. For the bracelet it's

actually a bracelet designed by Gail Devoid and

really what it is, it's very patternistic. So when you're looking at it

you want to make sure to write down what I'm going to show you and just kind of pause the video for a second and

write down your pattern for your rows. After you get going you can tell what you're doing,

you're going to look at the pattern for the first

26 or so rows and then after that honestly you can get going and you'll see exactly what you need to put

because most of them are 4 wide row wise at the top and the bottom and then 8 wide down here for your whites.

So to start out, what you're looking here is just kind of pause this and write this down;

Row 1/2 use eight gold, row 3/4 use four gold, row 4 four gold

5 red, 6 white, 7 red

8 white, 9 one gold three red and just read this through the whole way,

pause the video as you're doing this so you can write this pattern here.

After row 17 you're going to pick up with row 18.

Row 18 is going to start two

whites two blues

preceding to 19, 20, 21 all the way till 26.

So again write this pattern down.

I'll show it one more time that way in case you missed it

but you can pause the video at any time so you can write down these patterns

so you can get exactly which materials you need for which rows. If you find yourself

really hard-pressed at finding following a pattern what you can do is actually put these out ahead of time and just

lay them on your bead mat in rows

already predetermined with the beads in 26 rows so that way you don't have to grab as much. So again

that's kind of your pattern and that's what we're going to be working with.

We're going to start by working with 11s. The pattern itself calls for 11s

we did one in 8s because it makes a little bit bigger. The thing that's the difference is that the

11s are going to be a little bit smaller,

the 8s are going to be a little bit bigger,

the 11s are going to wave more. So we're going to get started on this bracelet.

So to get started with the bracelet what I've done is I've started with a stop bead. It's an 11/0

stop bead just in an alternating color you can also use an off color

something that you're not using in your flag and I'm starting with my gold color. This one here

I've used silver with the 8/0s and again I'm doing this one with 11/0s. So to start out

I've put on my stop bead and then I've put on eight of my gold beads.

This is going to be rows 1 and 2 whenever you start out with peyote

however many wide you're doing that's actually going to be 2 rows at once so I have those on.

I'm going to do 4 rows of my gold beads. I pick up another gold bead

sew back through

bead number seven in the opposite direction sewing from my needle and

towards my stop bead.

So the needle is going towards the stop bead.

I'm going to make sure for that first row that they really sit over in place.

You're going to have two beads that look like they're laying right on top of one another, keep going, skip over bead six, and

sew through bead five,

sew through, add a bead, sew through, skip over bead four, sew through bead three.

So I'm just doing peyote and I'm going to do four rows

where I just use my gold beads or whatever color you choose to use.

When I come back now

I'm going to put on more of my gold beads in between whatever beads are sticking up, so gold beads

goes on sew through a gold bead, and I'm coming down away from my tail.

When I do this bracelet the hardest thing for me is making sure that I'm not pulling the tension too tight.

When I seed bead I like to pull the tension very very tight and make a nice tight

bracelet,

with this bracelet if you pull too tight you won't be able to create that wave so it looks like the flag is kind of

waving along.

So here

I have 3 rows of the gold, I'm going to do one more gold and then I'm going to start in with my colors.

When you start this bracelet the start of it is actually just a little

section of the color not having any of the blue in with it, what that's doing is it's getting that start of the wave. And

I'm going to do one more row again of these gold so it's going to end up being

four rows of gold. Every time I'm doing a row I'm going to be putting on and adding four more beads

so the first time you stay or start out with peyote

you're adding 8 beads because you're doing two rows and from now on

I'm adding 4 beads at a time, so I'm done now with my first four rows

and I'm going to start out making some of my pattern here. So if you're looking back at your rows here

I'm going to start out by using four of my red beads.

Red bead goes on and this is going to create my stripes of my

bracelet so my four red beads are going to go on and

then the next row I'm going to do four white beads.

And again, you want to make sure not to pull too tight because if you start pulling too tight

you're really really going to lose that wave.

After I do my row of red, and I'm going to continue with a row of white

for row 6, row 7 will be four more reds

and then row 8 will be four more whites. Proceed here with my rows of my stripes here

I'm going to start then by adding my gold that's going to create my diagonal. So here

it's that silver when you're working with the 8/0s,

mine is a gold one that I'm working with and I actually have a bracelet here

that's a little bit further along that I have

started with and you can see here that it has that gold row that we're going to be starting on and we're going to be

starting on a little blue star patch there too. So on goes a gold bead and this is going to be for row 9,

you're going to do one gold bead, and then you're going to do three of

your red beads

and it's usually pretty easy

once you get going to follow in line with the colors because you'll be able to see the colors that you need to put on

and the order that they need to be in. As you proceed from row 9

you're going to go, row 10 is three white one gold, 11 one blue one gold two red,

12 two white one gold one blue, 13 two blue one gold one red,

14 one white one gold two blue,

15 two blue one red one gold,

16 one gold one white one blue, 17 two blue two red.

Continuing on then

with your pattern,

you're going to do 18 two white two blue, 19 one red one blue two reds,

20 two whites one blue one white,

21

through 26 is just alternating with red white red white red white and that's going to continue on your flags.

For an, for a size eight

or a size seven wrist

with the 8/0 beads, you are going to do your little half flag at the start

and then you're going to do one, two, three, four, five, six sections. If you know that you have a bigger wrist

than a six and a half or a seven, you may want to do nine sections.

It's going to shrink up a little bit when you pull tight. With the 11/0 beads the pattern calls for nine

flags and that again is going to shrink up a little bit to an eight inch wrist.

I'm actually going to do eight flags because my wrist is a little bit smaller so I can wear the bracelet

and I'm already done with one, two, three, four and I'll start with my fifth row now as I go.

As you're counting along the way

and you're going through those rows,

one thing that has been helpful for me, is realizing that you're doing this pattern on a diagonal is the first thing to help and

then the second thing is my flag is a square here and

my little section that would be the stars the blue section is a square so realizing that it's four wide

by four long, so that's a little helpful hint.

And then also your first row of your red here of your red stripe is

also

four wide. It's going to get progressively kind of wider as you go here and have your further ones

going from four to eight down here at the bottom

but it is that even peyote and that kind of helps so I know at this point I'm on a little blue section.

I've already had four

wide of my blue, so now I know it's time to start on red again.

I sew down and you can count across then and say okay I have my beads here and

when I look to put on the next one, to know the pattern without having to look all the time,

at my little writing I can say one, two, three blues

and I know I need one more blue in that section there and

that's going to complete that row of blues.

I'm going to continue sewing and you can see when you're working with it that I have I'm on my red stripe

so I'm going to add a red bead sew through my whites and the red and white are going to be every other.

So I'm going to sew through my white beads here or my red beads here now

and work with it, working with the peyote stitch here,

when I come back up this way, I know a white goes on because I'm on my white row.

Kind of kills me working with this not pulling it super tight, but you have to

have to keep it a little loose

It actually is going to feel a little bit like a loom bracelet because it's pretty flexible you can see the thread a little bit.

Here I'm coming over to my section here, and I'm going to count again one, two, three blues

and I know I need that fourth blue on

sew through the blue and

then the next row I can see that that little blue section is

finished off.

So I know then that I need to continue on with another one of my colors and I'm going to continue on with a white color

because it's going into the red.

And I'm going to continue on then with my pattern but that counting of fours for the blue has really helped me keep track of

where I am in my pattern.

So just showing you as I'm going here,

I have my flags completed and what I'm going to do is I'm going to start finishing my rows and instead of adding

that pattern which normally here I would add a blue, I'm just going to add

gold beads. So I'm going to continue with my pattern here and

go down the lines, but as I come back up and my pattern ends, instead of adding other colors

I'm going to just add the gold bead in its place. So right now I'm finishing with the line just as it would normally be

with my red beads.

I'm going to come back up with my white beads and

then as I get

along my row

it's going to mimic the other side basically with four rows of my gold beads. So I'm going to go up with my white again,

add my gold bead which would be normal to get my

diagonal of gold

and instead of adding a blue

next I'm just going to keep adding my gold

and

that's going to get and keep the pattern. So I'm going to continue going down,

I'm going to kind of stay with my pattern and

then as I come back here I'm going to come with my gold once and finish up the

whole way along the bracelet then with the gold beads in the four rows.

And then after this I will get ready to show you how to create the waves by adding an additional piece of

thread. The last thing I'll do is kind of just talk you through the clasp.

We have a lot of YouTube videos that you can check out how to add

clasps to your peyote bracelets, how to add clasps to

different type of loom bracelets, how to add clasps to all different styles of seed bead and bead weaving projects.

So you just going to check out one of those videos if you want some further detail to actually see it done

but I'll talk you through it and show you how

I'll tell you how I did it on the larger 8/0 bracelet which you can mimic and

use for the 11/0 bracelet as well.

So I'm going to continue finishing up here with my rows of gold beads. So I'm at the end of my bracelet here

I chose to do kind of a triangular shape here with my

gold beads. What you can also do is stop a little bit short here at the end with five of your whites instead of eight

and what that does is it just shortens that last flag so you don't see it as well, but then the beginning

will look a little bit more like the end

rather than five and one. Either way will work you won't really notice and what I'm actually going to do now is kind of create

those waves. You can keep the bracelet flat and straight if you want and just

wear it as is or what I can do is I can start to create that triangle, or that fold in them.

So I have another needle and thread, I'm starting at my first end,

and what I'm going to do is I am going to take my needle and thread and I'm going up on an angle here

right along this first angle here,

right there right along that gold bead line

and then I'm going to come down here through this line of gold beads.

So we're going to start right here going on an angle and what I want to do is I want to end my angle

right there at that gold bead. So I'm going to start here

and you're just sewing up the bracelet

on an angle and sometimes it can be a little hard as you see.

I'm using a size 10 needle you can use a 12 if you want, it'll make it a little bit easier to go through

and I'm just sewing right on that diagonal line and

I'm going to sew up and come out that red bead.

And the trick to this is you don't want to see any of

your thread so you want to make sure wherever you're sewing all of those threads are going to be hidden.

When I come out the top here, I'm going to sew down my gold bead line and again

you kind of just wiggle wiggle on through there.

Just kind of sew right down through those golds.

Sometimes you can get the whole way right away sometimes you have this kind of stop halfway through and pull the needle out and

then what I'm going to do is I'm going to pull nice and tight

at this side and

I'm going to create another angle, so I'm going up at a V again

and I'm going to come up my V here take it down to the other side and go up the V again.

So I'm going to take my angle here,

I'm coming right on this angle going through red white red white and going right up to the top here

right again next to my gold line

I'm going to start to pull tight. As I start to pull tight, you can see here that creation of that angle and

what's going on here is starting to pull that really tight. From those first couple little pulls and

going up

and then down the golds, up again through the middle of my flag down the gold you can see how much that wave is

creating. So I'm going to continue going

again on an angle through red white red white red white

and that can help you to kind of keep track of where you're going is that you know that you're going

in the color direction through the opposite colors.

I'm going to pull that nice and tight

and as you pull, you create your wave again. As you can see my flags are starting to wave in the wind.

Down that gold line,

and you're just going to continue doing this back and forth throughout the whole entire

bracelet with that extra strand and every time you go through another section you give a nice tight pull and

that's going to tighten up

the section before it and start to do that wave. So I'm going to continue doing that, going through the angle and then down through

the gold the whole way till the end of my bracelet, and then I'll show you how to

finish it off.

So the last thing to finish up the bracelet is to decide on what type of clasp. Again like I said,

what you can do is you can look online at our other Youtube videos

about how to add clasps onto

project, either loom projects or seed bead projects also at the end of most of

the videos will go into detail. Because this is such a long video, and it's very pattern oriented.

I'm just going to explain how I did the clasp here.

So to do simply, what I did was use the tail end of my thread and I came back through two beads

added a loop back through

that same bead that I was coming out of back through again. Any time

you are doing in a loop make sure that you go through multiple times, two or three times.

Brought it over here and tied it off somewhere along the end. On the other side

with this one and as well as some of my other bracelets you can use whatever you like, you can use a button, you can

use a bead,

you can use any type of bar clasp

but on the other side just to make it nice and easy I basically mimicked this other end here

but instead of making a loop it came out with a straight line put three beads on then my pearl.

One bead at the top back down through the pearl back down through those three beads

over to the next bead and circle it around, do the same thing three times in order to tie it up and

then make it really really tight since you're going to be using a lot of tension on that.

Brought the thread back through and tied it off on the side. Again anytime I'm adding thread anytime

I do any knots on the sides, I am a gluer I do use a little tiny bit of glue

so you'll see with this one here, I had to add thread about two times.

I'm going to go back and glue some of those points where I did the knots even though

I did feed the thread back through a little bit

I just like it as a little precaution. So hopefully you have

a fun, and patriotic time while you do the American flag bracelet. So thanks for watching, check us out on Facebook and

watch our other YouTube videos, visit our stores if you're in one of the areas if not visit us online at the beadco.com

Thanks for watching.