I was looking for a way to seam the side edges of a reversible hat. This seam had to be flat and look the same on both sides, because who needs a seam with a ridge on a reversible hat, right?
I knew a seam like this cannot be invisible – it would be too much to ask – but, at least, I wanted it to be slim and neat.
None of the seaming methods that I knew fit the bill, so I had to come up with this “dream” seaming technique.
And I did. This is the method that I am happy to share with you in this tutorial.
WATCH EVERY STEP IN THIS VIDEO TUTORIAL
(if you don’t see the video, turn off the ad blocker in your browser)
This seaming method is a variation of the mattress stitch, tailored for joining the side edges decorated with slip-stitch selvedges.
Any way to make slip-stitch selvedges will do. My favourite one is Silesian selvedges. It is the method I used to make selvedges on the swatches featured in the photos.
The seam is formed in one simple step. Let’s see how it works.
SETUP
It is best to make this seam by using a long tail that is already attached to your project.
t can be a tail left when you cast on stitches or the one you cut after you bound off all stitches.
You can even use both tails. Stitch half of the seam with the cast-on tail, going from the cast-on edge and up. Then thread the bind-off tail into your wool needle and stitch the remaining section of the seam using that tail and going from the bind-off edge and down.
The tails will meet midway, and you will secure and hide them there, removing the unnecessary bulk from both the cast-on and the bind-off edges.
I won’t be able to avoid bulk in my swatches because I am going to make the seam with the yarn in a contrasting colour. I do it to help you better see how the seam is formed.
Whether you use one of the yarn tails or attach a piece of yarn to make the seam, make sure the strand is at least twice as long as the future seam.
Thread the tail into a wool needle and place the knitted pieces that you plan to seam side by side, with the right side of the work facing you.
The first thing we have to do is join the bottom corners of the knitted pieces.
In my case, the yarn is already attached to the piece on the left, so I need to join it to the piece on the right.
To do that, I insert the wool needle from the bottom up under the horizontal strand at the very corner of that knitted piece.
Pull the yarn through to bring the bottom corners of both pieces together.
To make this seam flat, neat, and fully reversible, we’ll join the top part of each slip-stitch selvedge on one knitted piece to the top part of a corresponding slip-stitch selvedge on the other piece.
Because slip-stitch selvedges form a chain of big stitches, it is quite easy to find a top part of every one of those stitches. It looks like a bridge that joins two legs of a stitch.
We easily find them when we open each selvedge stitch. To show you these hidden bridges, I ran a wool needle through them in the photo below.
Now that the corners of the knitted pieces are connected and we know where the top part of each selvedge stitch is, we are ready to join these two pieces.
As promised, there is only one step, and it is very easy. You’ll see.
THE ONLY STEP
Take the knitted piece that doesn’t have a yarn tail coming from it. In my case, right now, it is a piece on the left.
Insert the wool needle from the bottom up under the top part of a selvedge stitch that is the closest to the joined stitch.
When we work this step for the first time on each knitted piece, the joined stitch is the corner that we joined during the setup.
Pull the yarn through.
You can pull it tight right away or tighten the seam after you make several stitches. It is up to you.
Repeat this step.
Because the yarn tail is now coming from the piece on the left, I take the piece on the right and insert the wool needle from the bottom up under the top part of the next selvedge stitch on that piece.
Then I pull the yarn through.
That’s how easy it is. One simple step that we repeat on and on and on, first on one knitted piece, then on the other piece.
Soon the knitted pieces are securely joined with a neat seam that has no ridge and looks exactly the same on both sides of the fabric.
As any variation of mattress stitch, this seam is not elastic.
To keep the fabric from puckering, pull the project between the top and the bottom of the seam before you secure the yarn.
This seam is flat even when we use thick yarn. But when the yarn is thinner, this seam turns into a lovely subtle detail.
HERE’S A VIDEO TUTORIAL THAT SHOWS EVERY STEP
Here’s how it looks on the hat that inspired me to figure out this handy seaming technique.
It is a great way to seam the side edges of hats and cowls and to join knitted panels when we make blankets and ponchos.
No more bulky seams in our reversible projects!
SAVE IT FOR LATER:
