Seaming—it’s one of those parts of crafting that can sneak up on you! Even if you mostly knit or crochet accessories, you may come across a pattern that requires some seaming with yarn. Or if you’re a garment maker, you may find that a sweater or cardigan you really want to make has seams. So we’ve got a video here to demonstrate how to work mattress stitch, a really easy way to seam pieces of a project together!
Mattress stitch is the easiest way to seam together knitted pieces of fabric. It also works for crochet—our video just shows knitted fabric.
Mattress stitch creates a join that is nearly invisible on the public-facing side of the project and retains the natural elasticity of the stitches, so long as the seaming thread is not pulled too tight. You would most commonly use it to seam up the sides of a garment or sleeves, but it can also be used to seam together blocks of an afghan or blanket, or the backs of socks that are knit flat (this is a common technique for knitting argyle socks).
It’s also ideal for projects that use striping yarns. The Chara cardigan, for example, uses mattress stitch to seam the fronts and back together. If you knit this cardigan in one piece, the stripes would be very thin. By knitting the body in pieces and seaming them, you end up with the eye-catching wide stripes that you see.
Have you used mattress stitch? Have any tips that help you out when seaming pieces? Let us know in the comments!
excellent and so needed
Tips! Clip the pieces together with small butterfly clips or locking stitch markers so they don’t get misaligned. Pull the yarn tight every couple of inches so that the seam isn’t loose and you can check for any wonkiness or puckering. When seaming sleeves or other pieces that are side-to-edge, lay them out and decide your stitch ratio in advance – if you are skipping a stitch every inch or so, on which piece etc.