Hello and welcome to Patchwork House . . . . .
my little corner of the world in England, where you will find me addicted to colour and playing with yarn!


28 October 2017

Sewing in ends tutorial


Colour is a wonderful thing!
 It makes my heart sing and my world go round.
My favourite kind of project is one involving many shades
 of the wonderful
In case you haven't come across this,
 it is a beautifully soft acrylic yarn which is washable, 
very affordable and comes in an amazing
  80 shades 
and there are always new shades being added to the range!


One of the most frequent questions I get asked by beginners,
 is how do I deal with all the dreaded ends!
So you've made a beautiful granny square,
 which looks perfect from the front,
 but when you turn it over its a disaster!

For this project I am working on,
 I have made a front and a back from my square,
 by threading all the ends through to one side. 
If you are making a blanket I would leave half on the front
 and half on the back then the blanket can be used either way.
When I start and finish off each colour
 I leave a tail of approximately 15cm / 6 inches.
It is important to leave long tails, so that your work
 can be fastened off securely, to prevent it from unraveling.


People sometimes ask,
 how I make my grannies so square and so neat
. . . if that's what you are thinking, you may like to read my
to find some tips and tricks!


Now to deal with these pesky ends,
 we need some sharp scissors and a darning needle.
You will see that when I made my square,
 I started each round in a different corner.
 This means I have about a quarter of the ends
 in each corner to deal with.

You are going to work with 2 ends of the same colour.


Notice that one end is at the top of the trebles
 and the other is at the bottom.
We need them both to be together at the top,
 see where my needle is pointing.


First I use my needle to thread the bottom end,
 up to the top, to be in the same place as the other end.
Simply weave the needle through and under
 the matching coloured trebles.


Next make a reef knot with the 2 ends of the same colour,
 to secure your work. This will not show it will hide under the stitches
 when we have finished.


Trim your tails to be the same length
 and thread them through the darning needle together.
Doing 2 tails at once will halve the time needed for this task!


I am right handed so I work from right to left.
If you are left handed work from left to right.



Weave the needle under the 3 trebles of the colour above (red here)
 then under a stitch in the pink row.
Pull the yarn through and make sure it is nice and flat.


Repeat weaving under the 3 trebles and under a loop of its own colour


Keep going till all the yarn is hidden
 and trim off the ends close to your work.


Turn your work around as you stitch to make it easier,
 always working from right to left if you are right handed
 and left to right if you are left handed.


keep going and enjoy the satisfaction of that pile of ends!


I like to think of sewing the ends in as embroidery. 
I would suggest that you do a batch of ends after every few rows,
 then you are not left with a mammoth task at the end!


If you are wondering what I'm making here . . .
this rainbow square will become a cushion cover.


Its simply made by wrapping a granny square,
 around a cushion pad and crocheting it together.
You can read my step by step tutorial here


So there you have it!
take care with your ends and your work will not come undone! 


Happy hooking friends

Heather
x x x




5 comments:

Janet said...

Thank you Heather, as always, beautifully photographed and explained xx

Mylittlepieceofengland said...

I do find sewing in ends the least enjoyable part. What a lovely vibrant cushion cover xx

Sandra said...

What wonderful colour combinations in that lovely granny square. It would make a great blanket too!
Thanks for explaining how to get rid of those loose ends so well!

Anonymous said...

Stylecraft yarns are good. I am using them in the crochet blanketmyself. I never thought of sewing in ends two at a time, good idea.

Alison said...

I love the way the granny square has been turned into a "different" square for a cushion, really great effect.

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