Planning

How many fuse beads do you need?

Add the numbers in the legend. That sum is how many beads the pattern uses. A full 29×29 pegboard is 29×29 = 841 pegs, but only if every cell is filled. Empty cells don't get a bead and don't appear in the legend.

Open a pattern on the fuse bead page, copy the legend, and paste it into a note. You'll see lines like A #e23b3b ×120 Red. 120 is the number to pour out for A. Do this after you stop moving sliders. The counts change every time the width or the color cap changes, and a shopping list from the previous attempt won't match the printout on the table.

Worked numbers

A square 29 board, fully filled, 8 colors, might split something like 240 background, 180 skin, 140 shirt, 100 hair, 80 dark outline, 50 white highlight, 31 eyes and mouth, 20 accent. Sum: 841. If the background is empty instead, you subtract those 240 and you place 601 beads. That's the difference between "I need a full board of cream" and "I need a head-shaped piece." Cropping the photo, or dropping the corner color, is how you choose.

A 58-wide piece is four 29-boards if you're joining them, not one magic larger peg. 58×58 = 3,364 cells. At that size the on-screen symbol table still works (it stops at 80), and the craft is a project, not an evening. If the legend's largest color is over 1,000, look at the preview and ask if that color is the subject or the wallpaper.

What "extra" actually means

Beads roll. A color you use 400 times can spare a small extra handful in the same bowl. You don't need to double the whole chart. A color you use 6 times shouldn't be the reason you buy a huge bag unless that bag is the only way the shop sells it. Write the leftover into the note so the next pattern spends it.

Sort by symbol before you start, not halfway through row 12. The chart doesn't care about your bowls, and a swapped bowl is a swapped color for the rest of the piece. The letter system is explained in how to read a symbol chart. A is only "most common" for this export.

Color names aren't a catalog

The reference palette has names like Red and Navy so the legend is readable. Your box might say something else for a close hex. The pattern guide already says to match beads in your hand. If a shop color is obviously different, pick the bead a person would call the same color at arm's length, and write that brand code on the paper. Don't hunt for an official id the tool never claimed to output.

Thread charts use the same addition. A stitch legend's × number is stitches, and the fabric math (40 stitches on 14-count is about 2.9 inches) is on the cross-stitch page. Beads don't have a count-per-inch in this tool because pegs are the unit. One cell, one peg, one bead. If you're joining boards, add a bead at the joint only if your board's edge pegs are real pegs and not a shared gap. Look at the boards. The chart won't model the plastic frame.

Sort the shopping list by count, largest first, and buy those bags before the tiny accents. A missing background color stops the project. A missing 6-bead accent can wait, or you can paint those cells to a color you already own and export once more. That second export is legitimate. Update the paper. Don't "remember" the six substitutions in your head while you place row 14. The legend on the table has to match the beads in the bowls, or the chart is fiction.

When the legend math lies to you

It lies when you copied counts before the last slider move, when you counted preview pixels instead of cells, or when you assumed every peg on a 29 board is filled. Always reconcile sum of legend counts with the shaped preview.

Quick shopping checklist

Online bead shops sell bags by weight, not by exact count. The legend tells you how many pegs you'll place, not whether a 1,000-bead bag exists for that SKU. Round up on the dominant color and plan to reuse leftovers on the next single-board project.

Questions

Keep going

• Fuse bead converter
• Make the pattern
• Read the chart
• The stitch version of this math

Updated 30 September 2026