Hello, friends!
I have long envied the sewing skills of some Amazing And Excellent Crocheters (@StellasYarnUniverse, @Centara, @LexaLovelyCrafts, etc), and was wondering if there was a tutorial online that can really help?
I’m not allowed on YouTube, but I am TECHNICALLY allowed to see linked videos as long as I can view them from within Ribblr.
(I really struggle with nice sewing, so I want to make my products more presentable. Anyone got ideas?)
Thank you!
I’m not the best at sewing, but I find that pinning the pieces in place helps me!
I have pins, but I don’t use them often because my stitches are but too loose, and they often get lost inside, and often I crochet too small so I get poked
And it’s not really the placement I struggle with, it’s more having neater sewing, and generally hiding the yarn better.
I’m glad you think I’m good at sewing I dislike sewing to be 100% honest, but here are some tips that help me with it:
What really helps with sewing are pins (I use T-pins) and ami-sticks (I use really thin knitting needles)! They definitely help with placement.
For cleaner edges, you can use the invisible seam - this is where you insert your needle into the post of the stitch instead of just going through the tops of the stitch. Kind of hard to explain with just words, but I do plan on making an image tutorial for some of my patterns soon.
I believe links to videos will most likely pull up another tab/page and not open directly in ribblr, so I won’t link any just to be safe.
Not related to sewing, but if you think your stitches are too loose, you can size down your hook to help tighten them!
Thank you! I will try using the posts.
My placement is awful usually so I’m glad you think I’m great at sewing cause I think I’m awful 
my bears tail is sideways and so is my sea dragon head, though that one added to the cuteness so lucky me. I plan to get some knitting needles to help me sew things in the right place. As far as how I sew them, I typically go through the front loops of the appendage and around a post on the body. If need be, I go back over them to clean them up or make them hold stronger. I think it’s one of those things where there’s no one right way, just have to find what works better for you
If you’re trying to sew in a straight line, take a crochet hook and line it up how you want the stitches to go. Continually line up the hook as you’re sewing to stay in a straight line. That’s the technique I use!
Thank you! I will use these techniques!
Using the right needle also goes a long way. There are long tapestry needles with blunt tips which work wonders for when short needles force you to have to squish your work down too hard. Another is to get a darning needle, which has a large eye (typically) and the curved tip. This really helps sew on limbs due to the tip being able to slip beneath stitches more easily.
If you’re making amurigumi, a good rule of thumb is to size your hook down by 1mm from the recommended size (sometimes I go down up to 2mm depending on the yarn). You can also get tighter stitches by using the yarn under, yarn over (or YU/YU) method. These also eat up less yarn than yo/yo, and result in the neat ‘x’ design in your stitches.
Use knitting needles through your ami for placement. Sew things like ears on down a seam of stitches to keep them in a line. Lots of tricks, just takes practicing until you get comfortable with it.
This website has some good sewing tutorials but just in case you can’t view it, I’ll post some screenshots as well:
Wow! Thank you! I’ll check ‘em out.
Amigurumi sticks or double pointed knitting needles work too. Just to hold the parts in place. These work great for knowing what round to place them on.
Something I noticed about the artists that you’ve linked here, particularly @StellasYarnUniverse and @Centara, their works don’t necessarily feature so much sewing as they do color changing.
The easiest way I have found to do color changing is on the last stitch of your first color before you need to start your secondary color, do not yarn over a second time with the first color, but rather yarn over with your new color and then pull through the 2 loops.
If that was at all confusing, I can find youtube videos and link here, demonstrating what i’ve said
I also try to avoid sewing as much as possible. So most of the time in my works, I will crochet the appendages into the project itself, if that makes sense. As in when I am crocheting and I get to the part of the row where I would like to attach the appendage, i will hold the appendage in front of my project and insert my hook into it and into my st that i’m working into regularly
