What you need for bead embroidery
Fine needle, strong thread.
- Light or medium-weight fabric, plus non-fusible interfacing.
- Beads: seed, bugle, pearls and sequins.
- A needle that passes through your beads; beading needles are very fine.
- Nylon or silk beading thread; cotton can break on sharp beads.
- Beeswax to strengthen the thread.
- An embroidery hoop, a transfer pen and scissors.
Watch
Beginner-friendly Bead Embroidery Tutorial (4:19)
By rimidubana · Open on YouTube
Chosen from its title and channel: a 4-minute video from rimidubana on the same topic as this guide. Embedded from YouTube with credit; we don't host it. It only loads when you press play.
All guides ›Beading and sequins
Sources
All checked 1 November 2026. We read these; we did not test the products ourselves.