Skip to main content

Why sewing is hard for crocheting as a beginner

Aww, to sew when crocheting. 

Try not to be scared of it because eventually to move from beginner to intermediate crochet status you will need to learn how to sew but as a real beginner, try to avoid sewing crochet patterns.

Crocheting an entire project with arms and legs and having these items look the same size, is one thing. Then sewing the parts altogether can really determine how good the final outcome of your project is. 

Here are five reasons why:

1. Sewing requires exact measurements 

When you are sewing, generally it’s to add two pairs of legs so the legs need to be around the same spot of each other. Basically they need to mirror each other. This is harder than it looks. 

A good way is to count the stitches from the bottom and find a good spot to place the leg. Then repeat this one the other side. You can also count the stitches from one end to the other, through the middle, to ensure it’s as close a match as possible.

However, if you are like me you might just guesstimate and nothing is wrong with that, except not every object you crochet will be perfectly aligned. And if you are ok with that and do it that way. 

2. Sewing needs to be hidden 

The other part to sewing a head on a body for example is if you don’t stitch close enough in, people will be able to see the stitches. It also needs to be pulled tight so you can’t see long stitches. It’s all about hiding the stitches and of course this takes practice. So don’t despair if your first few objects look not great. Practice is key! 

Also, this goes the same for crocheting arms and legs. Work out what the picture looks like. Are the arms back a bit on the body or quite forward on the body? Follow the picture for the correct location of arms and legs. 

3. Look for ‘no sew’ patterns 

When I started crocheting I didn’t really know what no sew patterns meant and I didn’t know what sewing meant but I definitely jumped straight to sewing, which is just harder.

You want to learn and perfect the no sew patterns first. A no sew pattern is where you crochet the object in one hit and there are no extra body parts to add on, except maybe sewing on a face, if you want.

This will boost your confidence in crocheting! Find a no sew pattern to get started, plus they are still super cute.

Also generally no sew patterns take less time to crochet because they are smaller. This is a great way to practice your tension and learning the stitches without worrying about sewing objects on! That’s just another layer of complication as you are learning how to crochet.  

4. Practice sewing the faces 

I would suggest crocheting a bunch of no sew patterns first and then spend a session just sewing on faces. To be honest, I have tried two different styles of faces and now I try to avoid them because I feel like sewing on a face just doesn’t look as good. 

This may be because I haven’t practiced faces enough or I am just not seeing it. I feel like for mine it ruins the objects I spent hours crocheting. 

This is why it’s so important to just crochet some circles and practice different faces, so when you go to crochet an object you are familiar with how to sew on a face. 

A lot of crochet patterns show fake eyes to sew into the object. I haven’t tried this yet, I have only sewed faces. I don’t trust that if I give a child an object I crocheted that the eyes might fall out. Especially young kids who carry the object everywhere. So if I am going to crochet a face, it’s going to be sewn on. 

And you can use different colours to make the eyes look real, like black, white and blue or green or brown. You can even sew on lashes. Go wild. Just have fun with it.

5. Next level includes sewing 

When you feel comfortable and confident with sewing faces and crocheting no sew patterns, it’s time to progress and move to the next level where you crochet body parts and sew them on. You’ve got this. It’s not as hard as it sounds it’s just an additional level of crocheting. 

#crocheting #nosew #hobbies #meltoye 

Also if you are a beginner in crocheting, you may appreciate reading my ‘The journey of crocheting for beginners’ ebook by Melanie Toye. You can purchase here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1808619


To see all of my ebooks available for purchase

Follow me on Pinterest at: @melanietoye

Follow me on LinkedIn

Join my hobbies Facebook group 

If you liked reading this post, please share it and buy me a coffee.




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How I use my home for craft

So my home is decorated by my craft.  For example, I have a craft room where I store my craft supplies and have space to do my craft and then I have in my lounge room showing my craft creations (pictured above) and also storing craft supplies like yarn, where I love to look at and think about the possibilities of what I can do with my craft supplies.  It makes me feel good to come home and be surrounded by my craft.  And it’s ok to never have your craft room finished. For me it’s a work in progress. I am always changing it and my supplies and where to showcase my supplies. This is because my interests change. One month I may be heavily into crocheting so I don’t need a table for that, I can just sit on the couch. I really just need storage for my yarn and crochet needles and my half completed crochet projects such as draws to cater for these.  Another month, I may be into scrapbooking so I do need a table for this, my set of draws for the stickers and tapes and then ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Crocheting my first blanket

So I decided that crocheting animals etc is pretty stressful. Not really stressful but not relaxing. A cool end result but I wanted to find something to crochet where I didn’t have to count the stitches or focus on the different type of stitches. So I decided to crochet a simple blanket.  I just wanted to use a small amount of stitches and not count them. I didn’t want to do anything fancy. But I still wanted to crochet. I believe if I could find something to stitch that I could just relax doing than it was worth it. I started googling a simply blanket planet using single crochet stitch. And I found one. It’s simple start off with the first row with a chain stitch and then turn it over and do the rest with a single crochet stitch. Brilliant. So I started crocheting a baby blanket. It didn’t work out. The sides were uneven and the blanket was all different lengths. So I googled and realised after I do a row of single crochet stitches, I have to do one chain stitch at the end before ...
Post a Comment
Read more

My new crocheting for beginners eBook is for sale now

I’m excited to let you know that my new crocheting eBook, “The journey of crocheting for beginners” is now available online. I will submit the links below of where you can purchase it from. Honestly, it’s a pretty cool eBook and it made me realise how much I have learned from crocheting and now I am into the world of crocheting, I thought I would share my advice and tips for those new to crocheting to bring something new to the hobbies / crocheting world. Please note this eBook doesn’t contain patterns but may be in the future I may share my own crochet patterns.  If you love crocheting, please buy this eBook and please tell others about it and share the links of where to buy. I would appreciate it greatly!  Ok without further wait, please see the links to my latest eBook:  Amazon -  The journey of crocheting for beginners eBook : Toye, Melanie: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store Smashwords -  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1808619 Apple -  https://books.ap...
Post a Comment
Read more