Crochet Couture: Craft an Heirloom Quality Shirt | Lee Sartori | Skillshare
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Crochet Couture: Craft an Heirloom Quality Shirt

teacher avatar Lee Sartori, Crochet Designer

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Introduction

      1:25

    • 2.

      Explore the Pattern

      3:41

    • 3.

      Discover Gauge Swatching

      4:22

    • 4.

      Stitch the Hem

      4:35

    • 5.

      Finish the Hem

      3:58

    • 6.

      Start the Shell Stitch

      5:05

    • 7.

      Repeat the Shell Stitch

      4:15

    • 8.

      Stitch a Straightening Edge

      5:45

    • 9.

      Edge Your Panels

      4:16

    • 10.

      Seam Your Panels Together

      6:13

    • 11.

      Finish Your Garment

      1:51

    • 12.

      Final Thoughts

      0:47

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About This Class

Crochet a cozy garment that you can pass down for generations to come!

What started out as a passion for making modern garments and adorable amigurumi brought crocheter Lee Santori more fun projects, cool opportunities, and career freedom than she could’ve imagined. Now between stitching up her favorite characters and new additions to her wardrobe, Lee makes crochet content for her 111K Instagram followers and guest hosts on the popular PBS Show Knit and Crochet Now. As the author of four crochet books, Lee enjoys sharing her love for turning a few skeins of yarn into a work of art that can be cherished for years. Now, Lee is excited to share five fun crochet projects across her series of classes:

After refining her skills as a crocheter for over fifteen years, Lee can’t wait to play a part in you diving deeper into more refined and intermediate-level crochet projects. You’ll learn how to make your first crochet garment all while adding some fundamental seaming and shaping techniques to your skillset.  

With Lee as your teacher, you’ll:

  • Discover how to get a perfectly fitting garment using gauge swatching
  • Add straightening rows to create smooth edges and add an extra finishing touch
  • Learn the shell stitch to add texture and interest to your garment
  • Seam your shirt together using single crochet joining

Plus, Lee will provide a downloadable pattern and materials list so you can recreate and refine your crochet shirt as many times as you’d like. 

Whether you’re only a few projects deep into your crochet journey or you just love the look of this sophisticated crochet garment, you won’t only leave this project with an addition to your wardrobe but also valuable crochet skills that can be used for a variety of future pieces.

A familiarity with beginner crochet skills including basic stitches and an understanding of crochet materials and crochet pattern reading is required to take this class. If any of this class feels beyond your skill level, check out this beginner’s crochet class with Toni Lipsey. To continue learning about crochet, explore Lee’s full Crochet Learning Path.

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Lee Sartori

Crochet Designer

Teacher

Lee Sartori is the crochet designer behind CoCo Crochet Lee. She can be seen as a guest host on Seasons 9 -11 of the popular PBS Show Knit and Crochet Now, as well as a cast member of Annie’s Creative Studio where she demonstrates fun crochet skills and patterns. Lee’s passion is designing modern, wearable garments, and adorable amigurumi. Lee lives in Ontario, Canada with her two small children, her amazing husband, and her adorable bunny Neville. Her favorite social platform is Instagram, where she posts fun, and whimsical takes on crochet. Lee is the former Assistant Editor of Happily Hooked Magazine and now focuses on commissioned designs for a number of companies and magazines.

See full profile

Level: Intermediate

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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.