Seaming Stockinette Stitch Horizontally
If you have to sew a cast-on or bind-off edge to another cast-on or bind-off edge, you’re seaming stockinette stitch horizontally! Super easy to do, you basically use a whipstitch motion to sew back and forth under adjacent knit stitches. Here’s exactly what that looks like…
Thanks for this tutorial. The Gibson sweater says to use this horizontal stockinette stitch seaming technique on the shoulder seams, but to me those seams seem vertical rather than horizontal. Will it affect the fit if I do mattress stitch instead? Alternatively, can you explain how to look at the seams so they look horizontal? The decrease edging throws me off.
Thanks,
Blandyna
Hi Blandyna,
Thanks for reaching out! If you’re working from the outside of the shoulder seam in, you are correct that the first portion of the seam will be created by the side edges of the work during the decreases and double decreases to shape the shoulder, and you will use ordinary Mattress Stitch to sew this part of the shoulder together. Once you get past the decreases, however, the final portion of the shoulder seam closest to the neck was created with stepped bind-offs, which you will sew together with this method!
I hope that clears things up!
Julianna
Thanks Julianna.
Whilst waiting for a reply, I looked at the knitting again and ended up doing as you’ve suggested, but in a slightly different and perhaps more complicatedly, way. I first seamed about 3 sts in horizontal stockinette from outside in towards the neck, and then made a second, separate, seam of mattress stitch from the outside shoulder in to the already seamed neck edge. It seems to have worked.
Thanks again,
Blandyna