Transcripts
1. Introduction: If there was any piece
of advice that I could have taken when I first
started my career, it would be to just go full steam ahead
with your passion. It's so much easier
when you take everything one step at a
time and just do the thing. My name is Lee Sartre. My Crochet business is
called Cocoa Crochet. Lee, I am a crochet designer. I usually do commissions
for big yarn companies, but I've also written
four Crochet books in the last three years. Today's class is all about learning how to make
your very first garment. It is such an easy shape
and extremely wearable. The way that we're
going to learn today together is we're going
to take each part of the garment and
deconstruct it in a way that you'll be able
to take it step by step. I'm very excited to
teach about making this crochet garment because it teaches you the
fundamentals of seaming. And also teaches you some really wonderful
shaping techniques and tools that you can
use for future garments. At the end of this class, you'll walk away with
something that you can wear every day and something
that you can pass on. Because crochet
and knit garments are things that last
forever, usually. And you can pass them on to other family members
to enjoy too. I'm so excited to start this class with you.
Let's get started.
2. Explore the Pattern : For the first part of our class about making a crochet garment, we are going to talk about the construction
of the garment and the steps that you're
going to be taking in order to create a
finished piece. This pattern is worked
from the bottom up. There are two different ways
to make a crochet garment. You can work from the top down. That means that
you're starting at the collar and working
towards the hem. And for the second way, you work at the hem and work up towards the collar,
both ways are great. For this particular one, we're starting at the
bottom with the hem. The hem, you'll
notice, is worked in rows of single crochets and they're made
in the back loop. Only that simple change to a crochet stitch
makes a ribbing. And it's such a wonderful
way to do something very easy and elevate your crochet to create a brand new texture. You'll notice that the
ribbing is worked in a different color When you
are doing your ribbing, it's worked in short rows back and forth in
this direction, you're working in
just these tiny rows. When we are about to start the body of the crochet garment, you're going to
be working across the row ends and putting single crochet
stitches in the row ends to start the
body of the pattern. And this is where the
first color change is going to take place as well. So that just means that we're
going to fasten off with our first color and join our
second color. No big deal. That's when we're going to start the body of the crochet piece. And every size has a
different number of stitches. So you're going to want
to make sure that you have the crochet pattern
in front of you and follow along with
the numbers allotted to your specific size
for the best fit. You'll see that the
crochet pattern here is made with
a shell stitch. It's a beautiful mixture of the simple crochet stitch of single crochet and then
just some double crochets. It's about the placement of those stitches that create
this shell texture. And you'll see that
continue through the body of your pattern all the way up to the top of
the crochet garment, where it'll hit across
the chest line. That's where you're going to
see another color change. Again, it's as simple
as fastening off the second color and fastening back on with the first color. The shell stitches continue. When you get to the color, you'll notice that there's
a little bit of shaping. That part is a little bit more advanced than just
the body of the shirt. And that's because you have
to be sure to get the count correct of the number
of shells going across. And there is some decrease, which is called shaping
along the neckline to allow for your head to be able to fit into
the top of your shirt. All of the sizes obviously, will have a different
amount of shaping stitches. Again, you'll have to be very
sure that you're following the correct number of stitches
for your particular size. The next part of the pattern
is going to be the seaming. So that means that
we're going to do two different kinds of
seams on each side. The first kind of seam
is across the shoulders, so you're assuming
the front panel and the back panel together
across the shoulders. The second seam is from
the armpit to the hem. You're going to start at the
armpit and go to the hem. And that closes the
sides of your shirt and allows for armholes to be created once everything
is seamed together. The very last thing, the
icing on the cake is putting a little trim along
the sleeve in single crochet, super easy, but it adds a
little bit of extra pop of color and makes those sleeves
a little bit more polished.
3. Discover Gauge Swatching: Now that you know the construction
of our crochet shirt, we're going to talk
about getting the best fit possible for your size. The most important
thing that you can do to help yourself get a crochet shirt that fits the best is to do something
that's called a gauge Swatch. You'll see here that there is a small square of the shell
stitch that we've prepared. You're going to follow the gauge Swatch instructions on the crochet pattern itself. The goal is basically to match the designers stitch
sizes to yours. And that means that every crochet or crochets a
little bit differently. Some people crochet tight and some people
crochet really loose. And if you want to create a sweater pattern or a shirt
pattern going to fit you, you want to make
sure that you are crocheting very similar to
the way that I crochet, so that your stitches will match the size that
will fit you best. There's a way to do that and the gauge Swatch
is how we begin. You're going to create
the gauge swatch based on the instructions
in the pattern, and then you're going
to use a measuring tape to measure your gauge swatch. You'll see here that my
gauge swatch measures approximately 22
stitches across to make 4 " and then it's 4 " tall. You'll see here that
my gauge Swatch actually measures 5 " across. And that's because
we are working with an established stitch pattern
which is called the shell. And so we have to make
a certain amount of shell stitches across to make
the stitch pattern work. And actually we're measuring
22 stitches across, not how many shells across. So you'll have to
specifically count the number of single crochets
and double crochets across to get to the 4 ". A good tip is that each of the shell repeats is
six stitches wide. So if you're counting across, start at a row where
it starts with a single crochet and every shell is six
stitches, so 61218. And then when you
get to the 4 ", it's 192-02-1202 So that's why
it's measuring 5 " across. But we're really looking for
the mark at 22 stitches, not all the way
across this shell. So if you happen to
make your gauge swatch with the same crochet hook that is recommended
in the pattern. But your gauge swatch,
say for example, comes up to be 6 " rather
than the 4 " recommended. That means that you crochet
really loose compared to me. It's not a bad thing, It just means that we are
two different people and we crochet a little bit
differently, no problem at all. That just means that
you need to lower your crochet hook
size in order to get it a little bit
closer to how I crochet. If you find, for example, that you measure
your gauge Swatch and it's measuring smaller, so say for example, 3 "
across rather than four. That means that you
crochet tighter than I do. Again, not a problem at all. Every crochet or crochet is
a little bit differently. That just means
that you will need to increase your hook size in order to get your stitches
to be very similar to mine. And again, it's not to say that, you know, my weight is better
or anything like that. It's just that if
you're trying to match somebody's pattern
and those sizes and those measurements, then you just have to kind of match those stitches as well. So you will increase your
hook size or decrease your hook size based
on your gauge Swatch. And don't be afraid
if you have to jump 23 different crochet hook
sizes, it's not a problem. The size of your crochet
hip doesn't matter. It's the gauge
Swatch that matters. So the size of your
stitches is what matters. So again, you can jump
as many crochet hook sizes as you need to in order to obtain
that proper gauge. So you're going to
remake your crochet swatch as many times as it takes in order to get
that proper gauge swatch. And as tedious as that sounds, it saves you
heartache in the end because once you have
that gauge swatch down, that means that your
garment is going to fit in the best way possible. Before we move on,
make sure that you have finished
your gauge swatch and gotten those measurements down pat so that your shirt
will fit perfectly. And then we can move
on to the hem of the shirt where we're going to start at the bottom
and work our way up.
4. Stitch the Hem: So we're about to
start our garment. And there's something
that you should take into account when
you're about to begin. And that is the yarn that you're using for your particular shirt. There are obviously
so many great choices and if you would like to make one that is similar to mine, I used Lion Brand
2047 Cotton Decay. The reason that I picked
this one in particular is because cotton is
very summer friendly. It's machine washable, and this particular
yarn is a three weight, but it feels thinner
than a three weight, so it creates such a
nice fabric for a shirt. So I definitely
recommend this kind. Or if you want to use
something that's similar to it in texture and fiber content, I recommend using something
that has some cotton in it, especially if you're
going to be wearing this shirt for the warm months. So now that we have
our yarn choice and our crochet hook
choice that matches our gauge and is the best
yarn for our pattern. We can get started
with the bottom of our shirt, which is the hem. Now, in some crochet patterns, the hem is added afterwards. But for this particular
crochet pattern, we're making the hem built
into the bottom of the shirt. And that's just to
make it a little bit easier for you,
it's less sewing. And also the hem is just made with single
crochet stitches. So it's perfect for a beginner going into their first garment. When you are beginning with
the bottom of your hem, I highly recommend leaving a couple inches of length
on the bottom of your yarn so that you can
weave these ends in securely later when your
pattern is all put together. If you make your knock
close to the edge, obviously you won't have as
much of a tail to weave into, and the tails can
pop out over time, especially because
this is a wearable. So that means that the
fabric is going to shift and move and you don't want those tails to come
out in the wash, so leave yourself a few inches. Make your standard slip knot. And we're going to
begin with the hem, which is just some short rows. And it's built over a length, like a very long length, that you're going to find the specific amount
indicated for your size. We're going to
begin with a chain, 111-23-4567 8,910.11, Once you have those 11 chains, you're going to
single crochet in the second chain from the hook
count to the second chain, and you're going to
single crochet across. If you've made anything like
a dish cloth or you know, anything on the basic
end of crochet, then this is easy PC for you. You may have also made something with a rib
pattern in the past. We're going to single
crochet all the way across. When you get to the
end of your row, just give yourself a quick
pause and count your stitches. That's also a good tip for
the rest of the garment. To ensure that you have
the proper amount for the entire pattern is just to give yourself
that little bit of grace and count
your stitches at the end of each row to make sure that you
have the proper amount. Once we get to the
end of the row, we're going to
chain one in turn. This is where the rib
texture comes in. We're turning our
work. Every crochet stitch at the top has 2 bars, or two side bars,
I would call them. We're going to be working in
just the back loop of it. You can see here that there's a back loop and a front loop. We're going to completely ignore the front loop and just put
our hook under the back loop. Only you'll see that in crochet terms that
means back loop on. Which means you're just
taking half of the top of the crochet stitch to make
a new single crochet, single crocheting
across in the back loop only by omitting the front loop of each of these
crochet stitches, you're leaving a little bit of a raised edge that
as you continue, your hem will turn
into a ribbed texture. You're just going
to continue doing your single crochet
back loop only across chaining one at the
end of each row and turning for the allotted
number of rows. Once you have your
hem length completed, I'll show you how to work in
the row ends to orientate your work in order to work
in the body of your hem.
5. Finish the Hem: When you're finished, your hem, it will obviously be a
lot longer than mine. This is just a sample
so that I can show you. Your hem will be the
width of your shirt. Mine is just this small amount. So that I can show you that
we are actually going to be reorientating the direction of our work and working across the row ends of our hem here. Now you'll notice that
I have changed colors. And for you, you're still going to be working
in the same color. Mine is just to show
you a contrast of where those stitches
are going to end up. So please don't change your color quite
yet. It's not time. We're going to be looking
for each row end across the sides of our hem and doing a single crochet
in each of those. The number of rows that you had for your crochet
garment is the number of stitches across
that you're going to get for your side rows. You'll notice that
every raised edge here, of those front loops
only left behind, actually equates to
two rows of your hem. That means that for
every raised edge, if you put a crochet stitch, a single crochet stitch on either side of that raised edge, you'll get the perfect amount. For example, right here
you'll see this raised edge that indicates that
these are two different rows. If you put a single
crochet on this side of the raised edge and then a single crochet on the other side of
that raised edge. That's exactly where your
placement needs to be. We'll continue along. Here's the next raised
edge of your hem. You're going to do a single
crochet on one side of that raised edge and then on the other side
of the raised edge. Now you'll notice that
there's a difference in the number of not loops, but the texture of those edges. It's the difference between when we started a
row and we changed one versus finishing the
row with a single crochet. You'll notice here that this one only seems to have one thread. And that's because
that's the chain one that we started a row off. And this one here on
the other side of that raised edge has
more loops going on. And that's because that row finished with a single crochet. So don't be worried
if you feel like your stitches are going
into strange places. It's just because
it's that difference. A single crochet on this side
under all these loops here, a single crochet on this side. You're going to continue
doing that all the way across and make sure
to give yourself a little bit of grace
and time and count those stitches across
to make sure you have the indicated
number of stitches. My Swatch is obviously a
lot smaller than yours. Just as a reminder,
make sure you follow the sizes stitches for
your particular size. So this is a sample of what those straightening rows
did on the side of our hem. And you'll notice that our
first row that we did into the row ends is the same color as the hem stitches themselves. Again, that's to create a
nice, smooth edge along the side of your hem before adding in the next
color of the body. When you do that, it's
just a little bit of that extra finishing
polish that will create a nice straight edge rather than having
your new color bump down into the sides of your hem and create
an uneven surface. So we do a finishing row of the same color first
to give yourself a straight edge to build off of before changing
colors if you'd like to, if you're ever crocheting in the future and you want
to use that technique, that's something you
can carry forward. Make sure that if
you're ever working in row ends to give yourself a nice smooth edge with
single crochets in the same color as
your piece itself. In order to facilitate a nice transition between one color and the next
With single crochets, you'll see here that our
body stitches are worked on top of our edging here
on the side of the hem, and we're ready to learn
how to do the shell stitch.
6. Start the Shell Stitch: The shell stitch is
one of my favorites. I go back to it in
designing again and again. It has such a great texture to it and it's very, very fun. It feels like when you are
crocheting with it that it goes by fast and it's just such a fun and
whimsical stitch. And the great thing
about it too, is that it's made with really
simple crochet stitches. So it's made with the
single crochet stitch and the double crochet stitch. It's all about where those are placed in order to create
that really fun texture. So we're going to get started on learning how to do
the shell stitch. It has a two row repeat, so that means that one row
is made in the shell stitch, and then a second version of it that is a little
bit different is made. And once you learn those
two different rows, those two rows will
repeat over and over. So that's what a two
row repeat means. If you were ever doing a
crochet pattern where it says, this has a three row repeat, that would mean
that there would be an additional change to that initial pattern and you would have to repeat those three rows
over and over again. So something to keep in
mind for this pattern. The two rows will repeat over and over throughout the
body of your shirt. Let's take a look at the first
row of the shell stitch. It starts and ends
with a single crochet. That's a really good way to recognize the first
part of the row. Repeat. We've changed one, we've turned, we're
going to start with a single crochet
in the first stitch. That's a reminder that
the chain one does not count as a stitch for the duration of this
entire pattern. The reason for that is a chain, one is too small for this particular pattern to facilitate being used
as an actual stitch. So that's why we've changed one. We're single crocheting
in the first stitch, that chain doesn't count
as a stitch at all. Single crocheting in
the first stitch. You're going to skip the next
two stitches on your row. Just leave them entirely blank. Skip this one and the next one. In this next stitch, we're going to do
five double crochets, all in the same stitch. A double crochet is really easy. If you put them all together, it creates a really
cool fan, like a shell. We're going to do our
first double crochet, the second, third, fourth, and fifth. You can see the start of the
shell happening right there. Just in the height
difference between the first single crochet and the cluster of five
double crochets. You're going to skip
the next two stitches and just watch because we put so many stitches into
this shell that we just made that it
kind of bunches. The next stitch, a good way to look is just tilt
your work forward towards your face and you'll see the sideways top of the single crochet stitch
that you're looking for. To count it does look
a little bit bunched up because we put so much
work into that stitch before. Don't skip a stitch by accident. Just tilt it forward and take a look and you'll
see them there. We're skipping 1.2
In the third one, from your five double crochets, we're doing another
single crochet, that's basically the
repeat. It's really easy. So we're going to
skip two stitches and do another five
double crochets. It's amazing how just taking the two simple crochet stitches
that you already know, placing them in a different way can create such a fun texture. We have our five double
crochets skip two stitches, a single crochet skip
two stitches again, and we're going to do
five double crochets. In this row, you'll
be able to really see clearly the number
of shells going across. Just remember that for
every shell repeat going across your work, it counts as six
stitches in the repeat. That means that there's
five double crochets and one single crochet, skipping two and doing
our five double crochets. This will be the
final set of five. Your work, obviously
will be a lot longer. It'll take you longer to
get all the way across, but you should be starting
this row in a single crochet, which we did now that
we have our 512345. Skip the next two, in the very last stitch, you should end up with
a single crochet. It starts and ends with
that single crochet. You can see here,
that's the repeat for row one. It looks so nice. You can really see the height difference
on those stitches, the way that the single
crochet stitch will pull those five
double crochets down, because they fan out basically. And then the height
difference turns it into a bit of a shell, they really pop, and it's
really, really fun to do.
7. Repeat the Shell Stitch: We're going to take a look at
the next row of the repeat. Because each of these began and ended with
a single crochet. We need to adjust the height
difference for the next row. And what's going to
happen is all of the shells will
offset each other. The thing that will
happen that you'll notice is in the
second row of repeats, the shell will get built
in the single crochet of the previous row and the single crochet will end
up on the top of the shells. Now the way that that works is that the sides
begin with a half shell. It's not really a half shell, it's just actually just
some double crochets. In this instance, we're
going to chain three. This one does count as a stitch. The reason for that is because it adds to the
height of the work. It's easily identifiable
and easy to go back into. When you get to the
end, we've turned our work in order to
make that half shell, to make these edges
nice and straight, We're going to do two
more double crochets in the same stitch where the
chain three came out of. That's the single crochet From
the end of the first row, you're doing two double crochets and that creates your half
shell along the side. We're going to continue
that stitch pattern across. We're going to skip
the next two stitches and single crochet in the
next and you'll find that that ends up at the
top of the shell in the third double crochet of the five double crochet
cluster right at the top. Single crochet,
skip two stitches, and then the next stitch is the single crochet from
the previous round. And that's where the next set of five double crochets will land really easy if you can remember where
those are supposed to go. If you don't remember,
you can just count. It's really easy to count
the tops of the stitches, to skip those two stitches
and find the placement. It's really easy
if you get lost, to navigate the shell stitches and figure out where
you're meant to be. We've done our five
double crochets, skip two single crochet
in the top of the shell, five double crochets in
the next single crochet, that's 34.5 Once you get
going on this pattern, it goes by so fast because those five double crochets
are just really easy. And they add so much height so quickly that your pattern
builds really fast. And that's what makes this fun, because it's really hard to get a really nice texture with a
really tall crochet stitch. This is almost
like a little work around in order to create
that really nice texture. Because the single
crochets cinch them down and then you don't
get holes in your fabric, that fabric that double
crochets tend to usually make. We've done our last single
crochet at the top of the final cluster of
five double crochets. How do we end this row? We can't do another full shell because it'll pop
off off the side. We want those nice straight
edges for our panel. Similarly to the
beginning where we did our technically three
double crochets, it was the chain 3.2
additional double crochets. We're going to mirror that on the other side to
finish the row with that nice straight edge ending the second
row of the repeat, we're going to do
three double crochets. In the final single crochet, 12.3 you'll see once again that that edge is nice and clean,
nice and straight. You have a full row of full
shells for the first row. The second row has half
shells on the side, what we like to
call half shells, but really they're just three double crochets in the sides. And then you'll be able to see the full shells in
between of the pattern. You're going to repeat that
stitch pattern all the way up the body until we get to the color change of
the straightening row. And we're going to take
a look at that next.
8. Stitch a Straightening Edge: So let's take a pause in our Crochet garment
instructions just for a second. To take a look at the
pieces that we've already accomplished and where
we are in our shirt. So we took a look
at the hem first. And again, it was
worked back and forth in these
nice short rows in the back loop only to create
this beautiful rib texture. Then we learned how to do the straightening edge along
the sides of your row ends. And again, that's
something that you can move forward into other crochet designs with
and have that in your pocket. We learned the two row
repeat of the shell stitch pattern and you can see after building it across
my sample here, that it creates this
amazing texture. And with that
lightweight cotton yarn, you can really tell how airy and light and nice it is
for a summer garment. And again, using that cotton
is super highly recommended because that will give you that breezy feel of
a summer garment. Now that we have the body of our shell stitches
all done, and again, yours will vary in size based on the fit that you
chose for your shirt. You'll notice that there's
a straightening edge here before we jump into another set of shell stitches with the
shaping at the collar. This will hit right above your
chest line, your bus line. And it consists of having
a straightening edge across the tops of
that shell stitch row. So we're going to take
a look at that now. Again, I have just a
little sample here. It's not the right
amount of stitches, so just make sure
that you are going to have the right amount
of stitches for your size. And once again, as a reminder, I'm working in a
contrasting color. You are going to be working in the exact same color that you used for the
body of your shirt. And that's to make
sure that you get a nice even edge across
without a color change. Jog in your row, although I'm using mint, you're going to continue
with your original color, which for me I should
be using yellow. What's going to happen with
this straightening row is our shell stitch has a really wide varying
amount of height to it. We have our single
crochet stitches which are really low on our row. We have top of our double crochet stitches
in the tops of the shells, which is the tallest height. Then the sides of the
shells where they get cinched down are
a little bit lower. We're going to fill in
all of these gaps with the three standard
crochet stitches that we all know how to do. It's a single crochet, a half double crochet, and a double crochet. And as a reminder, the half double crochet
is just the stitch in between height of a single crochet and
a double crochet. Our straightening row consists
of obviously chaining one and turning because
we're chaining one. Just a reminder, it doesn't count as a stitch for this row. We're going to single
crochet in the first stitch. Single crochet in
the next stitch, we're going to half double
crochet in the next, we're going to double
crochet in the next. What happened here is we matched the height and
depth of our shell stitch row with a
corresponding stitch to meet that height
at an even row. The single crochets fall
on the tallest stitches. The half double cerches fall
on to the medium stitches. And that double kerchet will fall onto that single crochet stitch to reach down really
low to meet that height. We're going to continue that
same idea across this row. A half double crochet in the next single crochet
in the next three. Again, we're dipping
down onto the row. Now we're going to
use those taller stitches to fill in the gaps. We're going to have
double crochet in the next double crochet
into that single crochet, which is the lowest
point we want a tall stitch to
fill in that gap. Half double crochet in the next because we're starting to
get higher in the height. Now on that established
row and single crochet, in the next three, you're going to follow that stitch
pattern all the way across. What you'll notice is if we pull this a
little bit higher, you'll be able to
see that we took something that was really
uneven and all kinds of different heights on the
shell stitch and filled it in with the corresponding
height difference of really easy crochet stitches. And what we're left with is a beautifully straight
row that we've established to build
our next set of shell stitches in an
alternated color. So it just kind of creates that nice clean finish once again. And if you're using shell stitch patterns in the future for
anything that you're making, this is a great way
to finish anything. So if you're making a dish cloth or anything square like a scarf, you can finish your
final row by filling in all the height gaps with
these simple stitches. So we've taken a look at the hem and the
body of the shirt, We take a look at how
to even off that color. On the tops of the
shell stitches, there is a bit of shaping
around the collar, so just make sure that
you count your stitches. And again, it's just
a mixture of placing those shell stitches on other shell stitches in order
to lose those stitches, in order to accommodate the
head entrance on your shirt. So very simple, just follow the instructions for your
pattern in particular. So next we're going to
take a look at seaming across the shoulders and
across the sides of our shirt, bringing those two panels together to create
a finished garment.
9. Edge Your Panels: We've done all of the pieces for our crochet garment that you have two completely
finished panels. And for ease of this pattern, both panels are identical. Now, in future garment patterns, you may find that the back panel and the front panel differ. For this pattern, they're
exactly the same. So once you have done one, you're going to do the exact
same thing for the other, and then we're going to put
those two pieces together. You'll notice that my swatch in front of me is
obviously smaller. But I'm going to
show you how to work across the row ends
of a finished panel. So this would be a
replication of a finished one in the full size with the shaping
at the neck line. And we're going to
rotate it onto the side, similarly to when we did the hem and we were working
across those row ends. We're actually going to do
the exact same thing across the edge of the sides
of each of the panel. Both sides, the
front and the back, left and right on each. So you're going to be doing
four edges altogether. Again, for this I'm going to be using a
contrasting color. So you'll see that my body of my shirt is made in a mint color and I'm working in yellow. But that's just to show you the placement when you
are doing yours. Just be sure to use the
same color as the body of your panel in order to
create that seamless edge. So what's going to
happen for this is you're going to add
stitches across the side to create a nice even single
crochet edge that is easier to join together
when it's time for seaming, if you can. If you were to seam this without
putting an edging on it, it would just be a little
bit choppy of a seam. And putting a little bit of a single crochet edge
across it just makes it a little bit more polished and a little bit of a nicer
finish for a garment, especially one that you want
to wear over and over again. You can see here that I started with the first few stitches. You're going to continue working the last row of your panel and rotate it to the side and just continue working so we're not fastening off
or joining back on, you're just simply rotating, chaining one and doing
stitches across the side here. And when you're doing
an edge like this, it's kind of working those
single crochet stitches as evenly as possible
across the edges because each of these edges
are a little bit different. There's the shell
stitch that began with a single crochet
and then there's the other stitch row that
began with chain three. The sizes are all a little bit different and you
just kind of will get a feel for where
your single crochet should go and you'll
also get a feel for you if it starts
looking a little bit bunched or if it's
not enough stitches, you'll feel that
your stitches need to be a little bit
closer together. What I like to do
is you can look for natural placements for
those single crochets by looking in the sides and
finding those little holes or gaps from the start
and end of each row. If it's something taller, like a shell stitch row that began or ended with
a double crochet, you may want to put one or
two stitches in that section. If it was something that
began with a chain, one or ended with
a single crochet, just put one in that spot. We're going to work
evenly across and put single crochets across
the edge of our garment. Make sure that when
you are doing this, you count your stitches and record it maybe on a scrap
piece of paper with a pen. Because you want to get
the exact same amount on all of your panels. If you did 121, just make sure
that you do 121 on the opposite side and on the
other sides of your panels. Again, you can have 125,
you could have less. The amount doesn't matter
as long as it's even and you feel really happy with the amount of stitches
that you have across, and you replicate that
on all of your panels.
10. Seam Your Panels Together: Once you have that
edge completed, we're going to take a look at joining two finished
edges together. Taking into consideration that my panels are obviously
not full size. You can see here that we have our finished edge that we just made and we have a finished
edge on this panel two, and this isn't the proper color. What happens is, you can see here that if we use
a contrasting color, it bleeds down into the
pattern and looks jagged, it looks a little bit wonky. If you use a color that is the exact same as the
body of your pattern, then that edge just
becomes nice and crisp, and smooth, and it just looks
a little bit more polished. We're going to put these
two edges together. The way that you
can do this, you can do single crochet edging, or you can do a sewing edge, and we're going
to take a look at a single crochet edging for
the purposes of this seaming. Both are great, so if you
were to do a sewing edge, you would just take a
darning needle and do a whip stitch of
putting these together. I find that with a
single crochet edging, which is what we're going to do, a single crochet joining, it gives you a little
bit more freedom because your yarn is coming
to you as needed. You don't have to cut
a length and run out, you know, halfway
through your panel. You will never run
out if you're doing a single crochet seaming because the yarn
is at the ready. The other thing is that
the single crochet join is a little bit more stretchy. So if you single crochet
your panels together, you'll find that the edging
will stretch a little bit and give you just a
little bit more comfort and ease in your pattern. Now there are a few things to consider when you're seaming. The single crochet join for an edging is going to leave a little bit
of a raised edge. That means that when you're
putting it together, you want that raised
edge to be on the inside of your
finished garment. You don't want the raised
bump to be on the outside. That's going to make it
look a little bit messy. You're going to seam your panels with the wrong side facing out, and then you're going to flip
it back the right side out. When your panels are seemed
the way that you can tell which side of your panel is the right side and
the wrong side is. Take a look at the one row of the contrasting color
across the top of the bust. You'll see that when we did our straightening row across
the tops of the shells, this is a wrong side row. Then when we did our first row of the joined color,
the new color, this is a right side row
and that's the row that we want to be facing out and
facing in the right direction. By contrast, if you take a
look at it on the other side, you'll see that it would be reversed if
you had it inside out. The straightening edge
across the top of those shells would be
nice and right side facing the next edge where we're adding the new
color would be the wrong side. And you can tell
because they are split and it's the back
of a single crochet, you can really tell
the difference between the right side
and the wrong side. That way we want the wrong sides facing
when we're joining. And that way the seam will be on the inside of your panel. What's going to happen
is you're going to start with a length of yarn. Make sure that you
have enough to have a tail to weave in, and have it ready on your hook. And you're going to hold the two panels together
so that the tops of the single crochets meet
starting above the hem. We're not going to be
joining the edge of the hem. And I'll pull back
my shirt to show you the hem is not joined. So you can see here that
the hem is left open. And that's just a design
feature for this. If you like it closed, you can close it if you want to, but it's just open on purpose. We start seeming on the body
of the shirt all the way up, knowing that and
leaving the hem open. I'm just going to use the
stitches that I have available. They don't match exactly because I'm working on little swatches, but it's simply a
matter of single crocheting through
both thicknesses. That means that you take
a single crochet from one panel and a single crochet
from the second panel and we're going to single
crochet them together when it references
through both thicknesses, that's what that
is referring to. We're going to slip stitch on, we're going to chain one, we're going to single crochet
through both thicknesses. That means that you're doing
one single crochet through each single crochet of the panel corresponding
through both pieces. You can see I went through
a green one and a yellow one and we're going to
do a single crochet. Then you're going to look
for the next single crochet on one panel. And the next single crochet
on the second panel, single crochet them together. You're going to keep
going all the way up to the corresponding stitch, leaving a gap before the top of your panel to allow
for the arm holes. Don't seem all the way
stop where it says in the written pattern and that's to allow for arm
holes on either side. This seaming method is also the same for the shoulder join. You're going to work across
the shoulders on both panels. I'll show you what this
looks like once we get a few single kirsch stitches on the right side and the
wrong side of seaming. So drop a loop here. When we lay this flat, you can see that
the single crochet joining is really stretchy, which is great, one
of my favorites. But it does leave
this raised edge, so it has a bump to it, which is why we do it on
the inside of the garment. So when we flip it right
side out, you'll see, and we're obviously going to be doing this in the same
color as the body, So it won't be as
stark of a contrast, but it creates a smoother
edge and a flatter finish. Now you can also steam this if you want to
hit it with one of your steamers for clothing
and make this even smoother. But this is fine,
just the way it is. So you would turn
your crochet garment right side out and
you'd be good to go.
11. Finish Your Garment: So now that your
panels are both seamed together and you have
everything ready to go, your arm hole will be made on
your panels on either side. And just to give it a little
bit of a nice crisp finish, we're going to put
a little bit of a single crochet edge
across the armhole. So you can see here we have a finished sleeve of
our crochet garment. Now, as opposed to working
back and forth in rows, we have an established circle
shape for this sleeve, which means we're going to work in joined rounds for this. That just means that you're
doing a single crochet. And when you get all
the way back around to the first one you're
joining and starting again, so we're not working
in turned rows for the final portion
of this pattern. Super easy to do now. You can choose to do it in the main body color
of your shirt, or you can choose to do it in the contrasting
color completely. Up to you, I love the contrast
of having the body shape hitting the top and you can do as many rows of single
crochets as you like. You can follow the
pattern exactly to have that little
cap on your sleeve. And that's just the last bit of polishing off your
crochet garment. With garments, you have
the option of blocking your finished pieces in order to get that freshly laundered, freshly dry cleaned look to it. You can hit it with a steamer with having the panels
already seamed together. Or you can actually steam
block your panels before seaming your panels together in order to create that
really crisp shape. The other thing you can
do is wet blocking, which means you wet your panels entirely and pin them down
to dry before seaming. And again, that will give
you that nice crisp edge. Due to the nature
of this specific garment blocking
is not required. But if you want to elevate your crochet just
a little bit more, feel free to block your
garment if you so desire.
12. Final Thoughts: I am so excited for you to walk through this
garment step by step. We've taken a look at the
hem with the rib texture. We've taken a look at the body with that beautiful
shell stitch. We've taken a look
at how to make those polished edges and
do the perfect seaming. So now that you are ready
to do your garment, or if you've completed
one already, be sure to share
all of your photos in our project gallery
attached to this class. And also, if you
would be so kind as to share them with
me on Instagram. I would absolutely love
to see your garments. I love seeing the
different color choices that people use. I absolutely love seeing
how you style your shirts. So I would just be
thrilled to see it. Thanks so much for joining me. You guys, see you next time.