Emily Knits A Cardigan: Seaming!! (IT FITS!)
A seam, as seen from the “inside” of the cardigan (AKA, the part no one sees)
We are now into the finishing stage of the cardigan! Yay!
Here are all the posts in the Emily Knits A Cardigan series, so you can catch up!
So, seaming. This is putting all the pieces together, and this is where it’s sort of like a puzzle, as I explained last week.
As a refresher, this cardigan has five pieces:
the back
two sleeves
two front pieces.
So the first seam I did (which you can see above), is the right “front” piece to the bottom of the back piece.I worked up to the arm hole.
Second, I seamed the first sleeve, and I was delighted to find it FITS—I slipped my arm in it and we have success! The third piece was seaming the front of the sleeve to the front of the cardigan, and the fourth piece was seaming the back of the sleeve to the back of the cardigan. So basically I can wear HALF of the cardigan now and it fits! HUZZAH!
The sleeve is a raglan sleeve, so it narrows to a point over the shoulder.
Shot of the sleeve—see how it’s set in there?
The second sleeved pinned before seaming.
I’m using a mattress stitch to seam the pieces together. It’s amazing and it goes pretty quickly once you’re in it. Make sure that as you work that you’re not getting any “excess” fabric—as in, check to make sure everything is going smoothly and there’s not a bulge anywhere. (If I can get a picture of this, I will, to show you what I mean!)
Now, with mattress stitch, you’ve lined the pieces up right next to each other. With the arm hole, I had to work horizontally for a bit, which was odd, but eventually it moved back to “regular” mattress stitch once the pieces straightened up. During the horizontal part, I did every stitch as opposed to doing two stitches at a time, to make sure that it was nice and secure! (If it was a more delicate yarn, like fingering or even sport weight, I would probably do every stitch for security.)
Also, when you seam, do it on a flat surface. I’ve been using my desk—it’s SO much easier than trying to hold it in your lap! You want a lot of good light when you do this too, and I have a lamp on my desk in addition to the overhead light, so that’s perfect for me.
BEHOLD THE FIRST SIDE!