Repairing Brick Stitch?

Q: I'm brand new, and a woefully self-taught beader. I made a brick stitch amulet bag as a Christmas gift, and it developed a hole & lost several beads within minutes of being opened. So, 1. What might I have done wrong? AND 2. Can I fix it?

A: I made the bag with 'Delicas', using 'Nymo 00' (and no beeswax or 'Thread Heaven'). My local bead shop is of absolutely no help, and I haven't gotten a reply from an E-msg to 'Bead and Button' magazine yet. All you have to do is go back in and add the beads that fell out, just as you would if you were doing the brick stitch from the beginning. The thread may have broken. What kind of beads were you using? If you had bugle beads in the piece, they have sharp edges and can break the thread. You also did not say where you lost the bead from. Was it the bag itself or the fringe? You may have cut the thread where you knotted the end of the thread. This is a no-no. Always knot, then thread back through several beads and knot again, repeat, then cut the thread. You will learn from your mistakes, so don't lose heart. We have all been there. I was using 11/0 'Delicas', and I did work my thread tails back into several beads after I knotted a new thread. The 'Delicas' did work up kind of "bumpy", which I now understand is a pitfall in using them (been reading up). I pulled on the work to try to smooth it out, and may very well have snapped a thread then (the hole is actually in the middle of the bag). Marilee (next posting after yours) said that the '00 Nymo' was too thin for 'Delicas'...

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