Sewing Up Your Knitting

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Sewing up your knitting is usually the last (or next to last step) in making your knitted item.  I personally dislike this step but often sewing up your knitting can be exciting, even when you have been knitting for a long time, like me.  When you are putting the pieces together, you can finally see just how the finished project will look!

The method you use to sew up your garment is a matter of personal choice.  I have included instructions for three different methods of sewing seams in knitted fabric for you to try.  My preferred method is the invisible seam, but you may find you like one of the other methods better.

But the one I use most often (virtually always actually) is the invisible seam. This method creates a neat (as in tidy) finish and makes it very easy to match up stripes or other changes in colour or pattern on the garment. 

©   Alex "Skud" Bayley | Flickr  Sewing Up Your Knitting

Sewing Up Your Knitting with a Backstitch Seam

A backstitch seam is done by holding your two pieces together with the right sides together.

Start with a couple of small running stitches. Then with the yarn at the back move the needle to the left and bring the needle through to the front (through your knitted fabric) one stitch width away from the last stitch, now take the needle to the right and through the fabric at the end of the last stitch.

Continue in this manner until you reach the end of the seam.

Or a Flat Seam

To create a flat seam, you hold the two knitted pieces together with right sides facing and work at the very edge of the work.

You move the needles through the fabric from the front to the back and then from the back to the front to create running stitches.

My Preferred Method: The Invisible Seam

This method is sometimes also called a mattress stitch seam. With this method you lay the two pieces side by side with the right side facing up. I start at the beginning of the knitted piece using the tail left when I cast on.

To get started you thread the needle with the tail yarn, pass the needle through the back of the second piece from the back to the front in the middle of the first stitch.

To work the seam you go from one side to another working one stitch in and picking up the bar between the first and second stitch. You continue this way matching the stitches on the two pieces all the way up the seam, pulling the yarn tight as you go.