Peyote Stitch Toggle Clasp for a Daisy Chain

To make the toggle clasp you'll need a few feet of beading thread, your beading needle, about 0.4 grams of size 11/0 cylinder beads (e.g., Delicas or Treasures), two magatama beads, 11 size 15/0 round seed beads, and one size 5 (12mm) bugle bead. The bugle in the example is a twisted Miyuki bead in dark topaz.

If you use FireLine beading thread, you'll also need a hobby knife or children's craft scissors to make the initial cut, and a thread burner to trim off the thread after weaving it in. If you use nylon thread (such as Nymo), you can use regular beading scissors.

Use cylinder beads to bead a panel of peyote stitch with 12, 13, or 14 vertical columns and 12 horizontal rows. In the example, I used 13 columns, which makes a toggle that is about 17mm wide.

Tip: If you want your toggle shank (the narrow band of beadwork that attaches the toggle bar to the daisy chain) to be perfectly centered on your bar, choose an even number of rows for this design. Also keep in mind that with an even number of rows you'll do even-count peyote stitch, which is slightly less complicated than odd-count peyote.

I used a striped pattern, alternating between two colors of beads. Be sure to leave a tail of about six inches of thread at the beginning of the beadwork.

Wrap the beadwork around the bugle bead and bring the ends of the beadwork together.

Your thread should be exiting one end of the beadwork through a recessed bead, called a low bead, in the last row. Pass through the matching protruding bead, called a high bead, in the first row of the beadwork, from the outside in. Then pass through the next high bead in the last row. This is how you begin zipping up to join the first and last rows.

Please click on the images to enlarge them.

Continue zipping up by passing down diagonally through pairs of high beads (one from the first row and one from the last row of beadwork), until you reach the end. Then reverse direction and pass through the last bead in the first row, and back into the beadwork.

Weave through the beadwork and bring the needle out where you want to begin the shank: five beads in if you have 12 or 13 columns, and six beads in if you have 14 columns. (To count columns, count adjacent beads diagonally.)

The shank is even-count peyote stitch with only two columns.

Pick up a bead with your needle, and pass through the next high bead in the toggle bar. After pulling the thread taut, pick up another bead, reverse direction, and pass back through the first bead in the shank. Continue this process, stitching one bead at a time, back and forth, until you have your desired length of shank.

For the amulet bag strap, the shank doesn't need to be very long. For wider, flat beadwork -- such as a flat peyote stitch bracelet -- it should be longer to ensure that you can pull the toggle bar all the way through the toggle ring when you secure the clasp.

When you finish, weave-in and end this thread.

Thread the needle on the tail of thread that you left when you began stitching the band of peyote for the toggle bar.

Pass back through the center of the bar, through the bugle bead inside, and bring the needle out the other end.

Pick up a magatama bead, reverse direction, and pass back through the center of the bar.

Pull the thread taut and pick up another magatama. Pass back through the center of the bar one more time.

After pulling the thread taut again, tie a half-hitch knot around the thread running between two adjacent beads at the end of the bar.

Weave-in and end this thread. This completes the toggle bar portion of the clasp.

Thread the needle on one of the thread tails that you left when you completed your daisy chain. If you're making the amulet bag strap, thread the needle on the six-inch tail. (Recall that we left one thread tail about six inches long and the other about 12 inches long.)

Pass through one more bead in the last daisy, so that the thread exits the bottom (or top) of the pair of petal beads on the side of the daisy (you do not want it to exit between these two beads).

• Review the daisy chain strap tutorial to see diagrams of the petal beads.

Pass through the bottom two beads in the toggle shank, and then through the same two beads in the daisy again.

Pull the thread taut, and repeat this stitch two or three times for security. Then weave into the daisy chain (making half-hitch knots along the way), and end this thread.

Thread the needle on the tail of thread on the other end of the daisy chain. (For the amulet bag strap, this will be the 12-inch tail.) Pass through the next bead in the daisy, so that the thread exits the bottom (or top) of the pair of beads on its side (rather than in between them).

Pick up 23 cylinder beads and pass through the pair of beads on the side of the daisy again. Pass through the entire ring of beads one more time for reinforcement.

Now use peyote stitch to stitch a row of 15/0 beads on the outside of the ring: pick up a 15/0, skip a cylinder bead, pass through the next cylinder, and so on.

Weave in through the daisy chain, making half-hitch knots along the way, and end the thread.

The toggle clasp is now complete!

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