Perfect mattress seam

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

The desire of every knitter is to make her product of such high quality that it does not differ from the factory one. Everything is important: even loops, drawing without errors, processing of edge cuts, perfect fit. And of course, high-quality connection of parts. How to ensure that the seam keeps its shape and is elastic at the same time? The most commonly used joining method is the mattress seam.

Required Materials

There are special needles for wool: a thick rod with a blunt end that easily slips between loops without damaging the thread itself.

Yarn for stitching is usually taken the same from which the thing is made. But there are exceptions: the product is knitted from a thread with a long pile or the yarn has an uneven structure. In such cases, it is better to choose another yarn that matches the color. It is also worth choosing a thinner thread, if the fabric is knitted from thick bulky yarn - the seam will be neat and invisible.

Mattress seam technique

To get the perfect connecting seam, you need to take care of even edge loops during knitting:

• At the end of the row, knit with a front or back loop, and at the beginning of the row, remove, respectively, as a wrong side (the thread in frontwork) or front (thread at work). With this method, one edge corresponds to two rows.
• In the front rows at the beginning and end, knit with front loops, and in the back rows - with purl. One row - one edge.

In any case, the edge loops never participate in the pattern and cuts (increases). If it is planned to sew the parts with the main thread, then in order not to hide the knot, even when casting on loops, you can leave the free end more than required, and sew the seam with this thread:

1. Parts stack side by side right side up.
2. The first stitch can be done from the wrong side, creating a kind of bartack.
3. Then the thread is brought to the front side under the broach between the edge loop and the next one.
4. The second stitch captures one pull of the corresponding hem on the other part, so the stitching frequency is one row. To make the seam more elastic, you can grab two edge broaches located opposite on different parts.
5. The working thread should not be tightened, but after sewing 3-4 cm, the connected section should be pulled gently: the thread will be evenly distributed over the entire segment.

With this connection, the hemlines are tucked inside out, forming a neat pigtail.

Connecting knitted parts

When knitting, a mattress stitch is the main type of connection of parts, it is used in most cases. The peculiarity of the seam is the displacement of the loops by one row, and this must be taken into account insome cases:

1. Connection of vertical seams - side and on the sleeve. When stitching parts connected with the front stitch, the seam is invisible. With the wrong side, the situation is different: here the shift of the loops is clearly visible, the rows lie with cloves to each other. This is not critical, but if you want absolute symmetry, you need to grab the edge needles not opposite, but shifting one row (half the edge).



2. Shoulder seams and side seams in cross knitting. The seam is tight and less elastic, which is very good in the case of shoulders. The loops are connected in such a way that the knitting closure loops are on the wrong side.
3. Attaching the sleeve and strap to the product. It is used if it is important that the beginning of the part is typed on the knitting needles. The sewing algorithm is the same as when casting over the edge: two edge loops correspond to three loops. The loops of the sleeve or strap can be connected to the product by removing them from the knitting needle: the back seam will turn out neat.

Connecting crochet pieces

Crochet fabric is denser, so the connection of the parts should be such that no additional thickening is created from the wrong side. A mattress stitch in crochet is also called a docking knitted stitch. It is performed with the main thread or thinner: you can unwind the main thread and split off a part from it. In this way, vertical and horizontal seams are connected:

• With a vertical connection, work is done on the front side. The thread is inserted into the basethe first edge column, then in the same column on the other part. All columns are evenly connected, similar to the execution of a mattress seam on a knitted fabric. The thread is pulled up every 3-4 stitches.



• Horizontal seams are also made from the front side. To connect the parts, the bases of the columns are captured so that the pigtail is on the wrong side.

Preparing the product for assembly

Before stitching, the details of the product must be prepared, regardless of whether they are knitted or crocheted. It is convenient to perform a mattress seam on a flat canvas that does not twist inward. To do this, the connected fragments must be subjected to wet-heat treatment: steamed through an iron or washed. When using the iron, it is very important to only lightly touch the surface of the iron - the yarn will still absorb moisture enough to straighten all the loops.

After that, the details are pinned on the pattern and left to dry completely. It is very convenient to use a special mat for tattoos - you can transfer the contours of the pattern to it with chalk and straighten the knitted fragments along them.