LBS - Local Bead Store Alliance

Sometimes when you’re looking in your bead box, or gazing at rows of beautiful beads at your local store you have to solve that age old debate: How much do I need? One, two, three strands? But what if you have  6mm and 8mm in this project and aunt Nancy says she wants matinee length? How long is that? 

Here is a basic conversion of round or bicone beads to the inch:

4mm =  6.25 beads per inch
6mm =  4.20 beads per inch
8mm =  3.125 beads per inch
10mm =  2.5 beads per inch

If you are using seed beads:

Japanese Seed beads- approx
size 11 = 16 beads per inch
size 8  = 12 beads per inch
size 6  =   8 beads per inch

 And to answer your question about matinee length, here are some common measurements:

Common Sizes
7″  -  Bracelet
9″  -  Anklet
16″ - Choker or Collar
18″ -  Princess
24″ - Matinee
28-32″  - Opera
48″  - Rope or Lariat   

You can find more conversions and charts at http://www.giniasbeads.com