Raise your hand whoever finished a project, that favorite sweater, the one you’ve been dying to knit and…when you finish it…you still haven’t joined the sleeves and a few other seams! A pain, right? Besides, you’re not sure if the seam will look good or not. In this tutorial we show you how to sew sleeves so achieve a perfect finish.
For this step-by-step tutorial we used: a tapestry needle and a skein of our fine Petit Wool
Let’s get started!
Before beginning to sew, place the body and sleeve right side up, facing you.
Find the center of the sleeve and place a stitch marker. This will be the stitch where we start to sew: first from the center to the left, and then from the center to the right, in two parts.
Also keep in mind that the center of the sleeve should line up with the center of the shoulder, or the shoulder seam if your garment has one.
Now thread the tapestry needle and start to sew. We recommend using a long strand of yarn, so that it is long enough to sew from the center to the other side also. We made a video so it is easier for you to see how to join the sleeve it is done.
As you can see, sewing the sleeve is easy. You just have to pay attention to a few easy to remember details:
- Starting with the sleeve, insert the needle from the back to the front, in the center stitch where we placed the stitch marker.
- Now insert the needle into the body of the sweater in the first row of the sweater, and pull it out through the next row.
- Go back to the sleeve and insert the needle back into the same stitch that you came out of, from the front to the back, and pull it out of the next stitch. At the end of this step you will see that you have made a “V”.
- Now go to the body of the sweater and pass the needle through the last row that you sewed. Instead of pulling the needle out through the next row, skip one row as shown in this photo:
- Return to the sleeve and insert the needle back into the last stitch sewn and pull it out of the next stitch.
Keep repeating the above steps until you have sewn half of the sleeve. Repeat the same from the center to the other side using the other end of the yarn tail.
And there you have your perfectly sewn sleeve 🙂
We hope this step-by-step tutorial makes sewing in sleeves easier and more enjoyable. We’d love for you to share your results on social media using the hashtag #weareknitters. See you next time, knitters!
