Free Peyote Stitch Pattern Designer — Draw Your Own Peyote Pattern

A Miyuki Delica 11/0 is a short cylinder about 1.6 mm across and 1.3 mm long. In flat peyote the thread runs along each row, so the hole lies across the band: what you see side by side is the bead’s length, about 1.3 mm, and each bead stacked up a column adds its diameter, about 1.6 mm. That is roughly 19–20 columns to the inch across and 16 beads to the inch up every column. The chart is drawn with square cells, so a real band comes out a little longer than it looks on screen — the size readout does the true arithmetic.

Because the columns are half a bead apart, a peyote row is every other bead across and rows are half a bead apart too: a column 16 beads tall carries 32 rows. That is why published patterns quote two different numbers — beads per column and peyote rows — and why this designer shows both. Tension varies; weave a short test strip and compare it with the ruler before committing to a length.

Every flat peyote piece starts the same way: string one bead for every column, left to right. Those are rows 1 and 2 at once. Row 3 works back from the right: pick up a bead, skip the last bead you strung, and pass through the next one. The skipped beads drop and become row 1; the beads you pass through rise and become row 2; each new bead sits on top of a skipped one.

So the column you string last — the rightmost — ends up low, and the lows alternate from it. The chart draws it that way, and the word chart starts row 3 on that column. If your beadwork and the chart disagree from row 3 on, check which end you strung from: starting from the other side mirrors the stagger.

With an even number of columns every row has the same number of beads — half the width — and each row ends with a plain turn: the thread comes out of the last bead and the next row starts straight back. It is the easiest peyote to learn, and most word charts are written for it.

An odd number of columns gives a design a true centre column, which symmetrical motifs and lettering often want. Both edge columns are then low, the rows worked right to left carry one bead more than the others, and each of them ends at the left edge with an odd-count turn, where the thread has no up-bead to pass through. Choose the width before you draw: widths of 10 to 40 columns cover most bracelets and cuffs, and clasps and end caps often come in fixed widths, so check yours first.

A word chart line reads like “Row 13 (←) 12 beads: 4 DB010, 8 DB200” — the row, the direction you work it, how many beads it takes, then the beads to pick up in order. Counting to the end of a row and checking the total catches a missed bead before it throws off the rest of the band. “skip” marks a gap in a shaped piece.

Most beaders work from the printout and cross off each row as it is done, which is what the box at the end of every PDF line is for. On screen, click a row to see it on the chart and step through with the arrows. Rows are easy to lose on a peyote chart because they zigzag across the columns; seeing the row you are on is quicker than counting beads up a diagonal.

Measure the wrist, add 1–1.5 cm of ease, and subtract what the clasp, end caps and jump rings add; most women’s bracelets finish at 7–8 inches with the clasp. At Delica gauge a 7-inch band is about 110 beads per column — 220 rows — and a band 20 columns wide by 110 tall takes 2,200 beads. The materials list counts what is actually placed, per DB code; a 7.2 g tube holds about 1,200 Delicas, so a colour used for only a few dozen beads is a candidate to swap into its neighbour, one tube fewer to buy.

Peyote is usually worked with FireLine 4–6 lb or a nylon thread such as Nymo D or KO, on a size 10 to 12 beading needle. Keep a long tail at the start: the first rows are the loosest, and the tail is what you use to zip a cuff closed or attach the clasp.