Invisible Closing Seam ~ A tutorial

 Invisible Closing Seam.
On all these cute little animals and friends that I'm making, I like to have a nice finish to them. It's much easier to just whip stitch them closed, but not very attractive and frankly, I think it gives the kids something to pick at. Let's hide those stitches!! No Cat Teeth.

Materials:

~Hand Quilting thread~ because it's a little stronger and I want to give my seam every possible chance to withstand lots of playing and loving.

~Needle~I basically just find a needle in my stash to use. But I do look for a slim long one with a small eye.

For the pictures, I have used a contrasting thread with the red, but if I was really closing this seam up, I would of course, use red.

Directions match the photo above them.

To begin with you might want to pin the opening closed so that you can concentrate on your stitches more than keeping the opening closed.

Cut about 12" of thread. Put a knot in the end. The thread is not doubled. You want to hide the knot in the fold. I've hidden the knot in the top of the red fold.

Going straight across from where I came up (with the knot) take a little stitch in the fold on the bottom.

Pull thread through. Going straight across from that last stitch, take another stitch from the top fold. Pull thread through.

Continue in this pattern (stitch in the top fold, stitch in the bottom fold) all the way to the end of the closing.

I've left the white stitches here to show you what it looks like.

But, after each stitch, you will want to pull the thread taut/tight.

When the thread is kept taut as you go along, the stitches will disappear in the fold.

Even using white thread, you still can't see them.

When you come to the end of your opening, it's time to knot it off.

This is the best way I can think of. I take one more little stitch. Before I pull the thread all the way through, I have a little circle left.

I put my needle through this circle, through the front end. This is important to note. You want to create a square knot and you will want to keep track of whether you went in front of the circle or in back, first. I've gone in front, first.

Pull the thread through to make a knot. This is the first knot. Pull tight.

Take another little stitch right in the same spot as the last stitch.

You're now creating another knot.

I left the little circle and I'm going to come in from the back with my needle.

Pull thread through. You now have a double knot.

Instead of just cutting it clean off there, I want to hide the thread ends. I stick the needle in right next to my double knot and travel inside through the batting, trying to weave it in there so it doesn't come out. I poke the needle up through the animal, pull thread through. Tug on the thread just a bit and clip very close to the material. I've now hidden the end of the thread. I'm trying not to draw attention to where I just ended my handiwork. :)

A nice finish.

Remember, if you're project is small, you will want to take pretty small stitches. Think of the length of the sewing machine stitches. While mine are never THAT small, I don't want to have any big gaps in my closing.

Good Luck!!
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