Description

Seaming up a garment is easy with the basic mattress stitch.

Transcript

There are several options for seaming up your garments, but my favorite is called the mattress stitch. Let me show you what it looks like. As you can see here, it’s super seamless and it really cuts down on the bulk. I'm Vickie Howell from DIY’s Knitty Gritty, and I'm going to show you exactly how to make that stitch happen. Now I'm going to use two squares of fabric, smaller swatches, just so it’s easier for you to see at home. I'm also going to use a contrasting yarn, normally you, of course, want to use the same color yarn. But it all again makes it easier for you to see. Now I have a sewing background, so I'm used to, when I seam things together, right side facing. Seam it up this way. The mattress stitch however, you work with both pieces public side facing out. You lay them directly next to each other, line them up. You're going to use a tapestry needle. So you're going to come up to the lower edge of one of the corners and then just kind of pull the end back here. You’ll catch that as you're going back and forth to secure it. Then you need to go to the other piece of your garment and pick up two of the bars that are in between your stitches. Pull your yarn through. And then repeat on the other side. Move over. Go to your two bars, pull through. Give it a little tug every once in a while to make sure it’s not bunching up. And continue. Find the bars, pick up a couple and there you go. And you can tell, even though I am using a contrasting yarn, it’s still creating a really nice seam. Here's a little tip though, if the body of your garment is worked in novelty yarn, something that’s really furry or has a lots of bits to it. That doesn’t really work for seaming up, so the best thing to do is find a complimentary color and a nice smooth yarn and just use that. Alright, I think you have all the tools now to make your knitting experience seamless.