DIY Pearl Cami Top

UPDATED: Scroll down to see the updated video tutorial.

I recently made a pearl net camisole top and documented my experience in a video. I’ve made some diagrams and notes on the project below.

The technique I used is called “bead weaving” and is an old art form that is still used a lot today. The beads I used are approximately 3/16” in diameter and I used silk beading thread for strength.

The top is basically composed of tessellating diamonds. My diamonds had 8 beads on each side + 1 intersecting bead at each point. An intersecting bead is one in which multiple threads were pulled through. It doesn’t really matter how many strings form the diamond, as long as you have 4 intersecting beads, equally spaced, to form the diamond shape. The hem diamond is rounded at the bottom and so it only has three intersecting points.

This is a basic map of how I arranged my diamond shapes to form the top. The loose strings at the top points were gathered into a single strand to form the straps.

The different colors represent examples of how I threaded the beads to form the diamonds. Each color represents a different continuous strand. You can knot off a string after you’ve intersected it with a bead if you need to. After knotting, I wove in the tails in several beads to hide them.

I don’t think there was one single way to approach this project - the one I shared here was how my brain tackled it. Thank you for reading!