Brick Stitch Increase and Decrease © Katie Dean 2012 www.beadflowers.co.

uk

Brick Stitch Increasing and Decreasing

Once you have understood the basics of brick stitch, you are ready to learn how to increase
and decrease. This will take a flat, straight strip of brick stitch into a curved shape. It is easy
to do, but takes a bit of concentration, so I will be offering you a really handy tip to help.

Brick Stitch Increase

The increase is made in a single row, simply by adding two beads in one stitch. In general,
you are adding a single bead over the top of each single piece of exposed thread that sits
between two beads from the previous row.

If you want to increase, you need to add two beads over the top of a single piece of exposed
thread.

Add your first bead as normal (red bead). When

you go to add the second bead (other red bead),
follow the usual technique, so pick up the bead,
but hook your needle under the same piece of
thread as you hooked under for the last stitch,
then pass back up through the bead you are
adding and pull it into place.

On the next stitch (blue bead with the arrow

coming out) take care – your increase bead will
probably be sitting in the space over the next
thread where you want to add the next bead, so make sure you hook under the next thread,
not the one after. The thread you need to hook under may be rather disguised by your
increase bead, so take care.

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Brick Stitch Increase and Decrease © Katie Dean 2012 www.beadflowers.co.uk

You will need to really manipulate the beadwork into a curve to make your beads sit flat –
otherwise the increase bead has a tendency to ‘pop out’ from the other beads.

In the next row, you will just add a single bead over each thread as normal – unless this row
also has increases!

My top tip for dealing with an increase successfully is to count out the total number of beads
you need for the row. Then if something has gone wrong with your increase you will
immediately see. It really is very easy to hook under the wrong thread in the increase area,
so at least if you know how many beads fit in the row, this will let you know you made a
mistake. The two most common mistakes are: failing to add the increase bead to the same
thread as the previous bead, or missing the next thread when you add the next bead. So, if
you have made a mistake, check these two problems first!

Brick Stitch Decreasing

The brick stitch decrease is effectively the opposite of an increase, but it is also a lot easier
to see.

When you add the decrease bead, you will miss

out a thread and hook under the next thread.
Allow a bit of slack when you pull the bead into
place – it will end up with a tiny bit of gapping
because it is sitting across two spaces instead of
one.

Again, take care as you add the next bead. It will

be tempting to add it to the same thread that you
have just used – the next thread along may look
as though it is too far along. However, if you do
add the next bead to the same thread as the decrease bead, you will have effectively
‘undone’ the increase as, instead of an empty thread, you will have an empty thread followed
by a thread with two beads attached!

Once again, it will help if you count out the beads for the row so you are sure that they all fit
when you reach the end. Again, the most common mistake is getting confused about which
thread you have used, so if something has gone wrong, go back and check that you
genuinely have an empty thread and a single bead attached over each of the other threads.

Other Useful Stuff

Brick stitch increases are most often used when you are working in circular brick stitch, so
there is a natural curve in place which really helps to get it right first time!

If you increase in a tube, this will allow it to start forming a conical shape. Then if you
decrease, you can reduce the cone, so using a formula of increasing for a few rows, then
decreasing for a few rows can make a brick stitch beaded bead!