Joining and seams · Easy
Whip stitch
A whip stitch sews two pieces of crochet together with a yarn needle. Hold the two edges together and pass the needle through a stitch of both, always in the same direction, so that the yarn wraps over the edges once for every stitch.
How to work it
Thread the needle and take the first pair
Thread a blunt yarn needle with the yarn of the piece, or with a long tail left when a piece was fastened off. Hold the two pieces together with their edges lined up, stitch for stitch. Pass the needle under both loops at the top of the first stitch of one edge and of the matching stitch of the other, and pull the yarn through. Leave a short end to weave in later.
Go through the next pair the same way
Bring the needle back round to the side it started from, and pass it under the loops of the next stitch of both edges, in the same direction as before. The yarn now lies over the two edges. Repeat in every pair of stitches, pulling each stitch snug and no tighter.
Fasten the end
At the end of the seam, fasten the yarn and weave in both ends. Opened out flat, the seam shows as a row of short slanting stitches across the join.
At a glance
- Also called
- whipstitch, overcast stitch
- Used for
- sewing squares and other motifs into a blanket; closing the seams of pillows and toys; any seam that should be quick to sew and need not be hidden
- Tool
- A blunt yarn needle with an eye large enough for the yarn
- Which loops
- Both loops at the top of each stitch, on both edges
- Which faces go together
- The right sides or the wrong sides: the pattern says which
- Yarn
- The yarn of the piece, in the same color, keeps the seam from showing much. Another color turns the seam into a decoration.
- How it shows
- It is not a hidden seam. The stitches can be seen.
A whip stitch seam is quick, and it needs nothing but a needle and yarn. It is a common way to sew crochet pieces together.
Along the top edge of a row or round there is one pair of loops for each stitch, so the two edges match stitch for stitch and the seam counts itself. Along the side of a piece, where the rows end, there are no loops to match. There, put the needle in along the edge and space the stitches evenly by eye.
On a long seam, hold the two edges together with clips, pins or stitch markers at both ends and at a few places between before you start to sew. The edges then come out the same length.
Tips
- Keep the stitches evenly spaced and pulled to the same snugness. Even stitches make a neat seam.
When it goes wrong
- My seam puckers.
- The stitches are pulled too tight. Undo them back to the pucker and sew again, pulling each stitch only until it lies snug.
- One edge is longer than the other when I reach the end.
- Undo the seam, hold the two edges together at both ends and at a few places between, and sew again, matching stitch for stitch.
Questions
- Is a whip stitch seam invisible?
- No. It shows less in yarn of the same color, but it can be seen. Mattress stitch is the sewn seam that hides.
- Which way does the needle go?
- The same way for every stitch: in on one side, out on the other, then back over the edges to the first side for the next stitch.
- Whip stitch or mattress stitch?
- Whip stitch is quick and may be left to show. Mattress stitch almost disappears in a matching yarn, so it is the one for a seam that should hide.