Sewing crochet to fabric, and things onto crochet

Sewing crochet onto fabric

Crochet is sewn onto cloth as decoration and as repair: a motif on a t-shirt or a bag, a pocket on a jacket, a patch over a hole in jeans. Strips of crocheted edging are sewn along the edges of towels, sheets, pillowcases and handkerchiefs.

1. Choose the yarn for the wash. The crochet will be washed with whatever it is sewn to. Make it from a yarn that takes the same care as the item. How to wash crochet covers what each fiber needs.
2. Pin it in place. Lay the item flat and pin the crochet where it will go. Do not pull or bunch the cloth as you pin, and do not stretch the crochet.
3. Thread a sewing needle with sewing thread. Choose a thread that matches the crochet.
4. Stitch round the edge by hand. Three stitches are used. Running stitch is quick. Backstitch takes longer and holds more firmly. Whipstitch goes over the edge of the crochet.

To work an edging straight into the cloth, with no sewing, see crochet edging on fabric.

When glue is used

Fabric glue or hot glue can hold a motif where you want it. It is used in two ways.

• To hold a piece before it is sewn. Glue, or an iron-on bonding web, keeps a patch from moving while you stitch.
• On something stiff. A motif on a thing that does not bend, such as a piece of furniture, can be glued and left.

On clothes, stitches are the longer lasting way. Glue alone is a shortcut.

A crocheted applique can be glued to a crocheted background too, with a thin layer of fabric glue over its whole back. Glue is quick and leaves the back neat, but it holds less firmly than stitches, so it is for things that are only decoration.

Sewing a button onto crochet

Stitch names on this page are United States terms, with the United Kingdom name in brackets where it differs.

• Sew into the yarn. Take the needle through the strands of the yarn itself. A button sewn only through the gaps between stitches sits loose and pulls the stitches out of shape. The advice is written for knitted fabric, and crochet has gaps of the same kind.
• Use the yarn, or thread. A button can be sewn on with the yarn of the piece: its starting tail, or one strand untwisted from it. Embroidery thread and sewing thread are used too.
• Give it a shank. On thick fabric a button has to stand a little above the surface. A shank button has a loop on its back for this. Under a flat button with two or four holes, wind the thread a few times round the stitches between the button and the fabric, then fasten off on the back. That is a thread shank.

Buttonholes and button loops make the other half of the fastening.

Labels and patches

A label or a patch is pinned or basted in place and sewn round its edge by hand, with running stitch or whip stitch. Catch the strands of the yarn with each stitch, as for a button.

Thread or yarn?

Both are used, each in its place.

• Sewing thread is what is used to sew crochet onto woven or knitted cloth, and to sew on small things such as beads.
• Yarn is what is used between two pieces of crochet. One teacher warns that thin thread pulled tight can cut into a thick, soft yarn. That teacher sews such yarn with yarn, and keeps it away from the sewing machine.

Sewing a crochet applique onto crochet

1. Leave a long tail when you fasten off the applique. It becomes the sewing yarn, and it is the same yarn as the applique, so the stitches hardly show.
2. Pin the applique to the blanket, hat or bag.
3. Thread the tail on a blunt yarn needle.
4. Sew all the way round, just inside the edge. Running stitch and backstitch are both used here. Backstitch makes a solid line and holds the applique flat. Stitches kept inside the edge leave the outline of the applique whole. Whip stitch over the edge also holds, but it covers the outline.
5. Fasten off on the back and hide the end. Weaving in ends shows how.

Where to go next

• Crochet edging on fabric for crochet worked straight into a cloth edge.
• Adding crochet to clothes for edgings, patches and hems on bought garments.
• Adding a zipper to crochet for the other thing that is sewn in.
• Embroidery on crochet for stitches worked on the surface.