When making amigurumi, you will often need to join an open-ended crocheted piece (e.g. the top of a leg or tail or a muzzle) to a closed crocheted piece (e.g. the body or head). Sewing these together neatly can be tricky and can make the difference between a cohesive finish and an untidy messy join. In this tutorial I will demonstrate the method I developed for sewing pieces together neatly, with an almost invisible join.
Both pieces are usually the same colour, but, for the purpose of this tutorial, I will be joining an open-ended brown piece (right) to a closed grey piece (left):
You will usually have a long yarn end left over from the open-ended piece to sew the two pieces together. For further clarity in the tutorial, I have substituted the brown yarn end (above) with pink yarn. Thread a yarn needle with the yarn end:
Hold the two pieces together in their final position, with the yarn end towards you. Note: I’m left-handed, so my stitches go from left to right and I hold my work with the open-ended piece on the right. If you’re right-handed, you will probably find it easier to mentally ‘flip’ all my images (left to right).
Begin the first stitch into the main piece, just outside the place where the two pieces touch:
Bring the needle back out of the main piece where it will be covered by the second piece, then through both loops of the next stitch of the open-ended piece (going from inside to outside):
Draw the yarn all the way through so there is no slack, but do not pull it overly tight. Your first stitch is complete. If you are using the same colour yarn for both pieces and the sewing, the stitch will blend into the crocheted stitches and will not be obvious, unlike in this picture:
Repeat the same process with the next stitch: insert the needle into the main piece just outside where the two pieces meet, coming up further inside, then through both loops of the next stitch of the open-ended piece, going from inside to outside:
Repeat for each stitch around the open-ended piece. When you get the hang of it, you can do the complete stitch in one move:
Here’s a close-up of exactly where the stitch should be made:
And here is the finished result – a nice, smooth join:
Look at the size of the stitches – to make the best join, the stitches should be visible like this, but of course they will not show up like this in your real work where you use one colour instead of three! Here’s an example of my technique in action:
I hope you find this tutorial useful! Happy amigurumi making…
CSI.Prozac