How to Sew Different Pieces on Amigurumi
One of these least fun things about making amigurumi is having to sew a bunch of parts together. It’s often time consuming and down right frustrating. That’s one of the reasons many designers have focused on creating more no sew patterns lately. However, sewing is an essential skill for an amigurumi maker and with a few tips, it doesn’t have to be the worst thing in the world. That’s why this week we’re talking about how to sew different pieces on amigurumi.
How to Sew Different Pieces on Amigurumi
General Tips & Tricks
Before we dive into how to sew different pieces on amigurumi, let’s talk about some general tips and tricks to make things easier.
1. Use the Right Materials
There are several different kinds of tapestry needles and it may take a bit of practice to figure out which kind works best for you. For amigurumi, I highly recommend using metal tapestry needles because they won’t bend or break like plastic ones will.
Here are some examples of different tapestry needles and why you might use one kind over another.
- Metal vs Plastic: Metal needles are sturdy and versatile, while plastic are larger and better for beginners.
- Sharp Needles: These needles are great for embroidery because you can be very precise with where you place your stitches. Furthermore, the sharp tip can help you piece the fabric of your project if the stitches are especially tight.
- Blunt Needles: These needles are great for sewing different amigurumi pieces together as the blunt tip will naturally glide between crochet stitches.
- Straight Needles: Straight needles are best for sewing parts on relatively flat areas or joining 2 dimensional pieces. Of course these needles also work for sewing more complex curves shapes, but it may be a little harder.
- Bent-Tip Needles: The bent-tip of these needles works great for sewing in tight spots or through oddly-shaped pieces. This makes it easier to work through stitches at an angle.
- Long vs Short Needles: Tapestry needles come in many lengths and sizes. The type you use depends on the project and your personal preference.
I recommend trying out different kinds of needles to see which kinds suit your needs the best. For example, most amigurumi makers will say they prefer the bent-tip needles for sewing, but I find they twist too much in my hand to be useful. My personal favorite is this 5 inch, blunt tapestry needle that I got from Michaels.
It’s extra long which is a lot easier for me to grip and control than the shorter variations. Even though it doesn’t suit every project, especially very small ones, it’s my go-to needle. If you would like to give this needle a try, you can find it here.
As a side note, I’m not affiliated with Michaels Craft Stores in any way and I don’t earn any commission if you click through to make a purchase from them.
2. Practice Pinning
Another material you’ll needle for sewing amigurumi is sewing pins or, my personal favorite, quilting pins. I highly recommend using longer pins with the ball head on the end. Bonus points if you get pins with different colored heads.
Longer pins will hold your pieces together more securely. Now you don’t need different colored ones, but I’ll explain why they can be helpful in a moment.
If you’ve made amigurumi before, you’ll know that pinning pieces can be almost as frustrating as sewing itself. That’s why one of the biggest tips I have for you is to spend extra time pinning things in place and to pin all of the parts before you sew.
Depending on the pattern, designers will often specify where certain pieces should be attached. For example, a pattern might say: “Place the front legs on the belly of the body between Rnds 12-15 with about 6 stitches in between.”
Using this example, let’s say you pin the front legs, taking the time to make sure they’re centered in relation to the head. Instead of sewing them on, you’ll then pin all of the other parts, such as the back legs, wings, spikes and horns. (We’re assembling my prototype baby dragon in this example.)
Now that you have everything pinned, it’s important to double check that everything looks even, centered and aligned properly. I know it’s tedious to slightly shift limbs over by one or two stitches at a time, but if you take this time now to properly pin, it’ll save you a lot of grief when sewing. Hold your piece upside down, sideways and check all the placements from every angle.
Pro Tip: Did you know that inconsistencies look way more obvious in a mirror? Place your project in front of a mirror and see if any parts look out of place.
So now that you have all the pieces in place, it’s finally time to sew! There are actually two ways to go about this. The first is to leave everything pinned and sew one piece at a time, which I’ll go into detail about below. The second option is to use different colored pins to carefully mark where each piece will go. Then remove all but the first piece you want to sew.
This second method is great if you’re having trouble working around the yarn tails from several pieces. The downside is that you need different colored pins for this (to keep track of what parts go where). In the end, it’s up to you which method you prefer.
3. Bonus Tips
These tips don’t really fit into a specific category because they are very project-specific, but I wanted to share them nonetheless.
- Alternate Yarn/Thread: Some yarns are great for crocheting and terrible for sewing. For instance, plush yarn make awesome amigurumi, but it can snap easily if pulled to hard when sewing or shed fibers everywhere. This also goes for more delicate fibers like wool or fibers that have a natural halo (the fuzz surrounding the main strand that makes unraveling difficult).
- The solution is to use a different, similarly colored yarn to sew your attachments. For example, if you use white blanket yarn to make a snowman, you could use white acrylic yarn to sew the head to the body. The fluffiness of the blanket yarn will naturally hide the thinner acrylic and make the attachment easier and pretty seamless. The same goes for projects made with thinner yarn. You could use crochet thread or sewing thread if your yarn isn’t suitable for sewing.
- Amigurumi Sticks: These are essentially long knitting needles that have been repurposed to act like large sewing pins. Many handmade sellers decorate the ends with cute attachments, but you can just as easily use regular knitting needles. These sticks are great for pinning large pieces in place and are most commonly used with plush yarn amigurumi. Toys made with plush yarn are often too large to be pinned together with long sewing pins, so that is where amigurumi sticks come in handy.
If you prefer to watch the tutorial part of this article, check out this video! Also if you want to help support me, consider giving the video a like and subscribing to my channel!
Sewing Flat Pieces to a Closed Piece
How you sew pieces will depend on the type of piece you’re sewing. In this article I’m focusing on sewing different pieces onto a closed project. By closed, I’m referring to an amigurumi part that you have crocheted, stuffed and sewn shut. You would proceed a little differently if you were working on an open piece (one you have not stuffed and sewn closed), but that will be the topic of a future article.
The example I’m using for this article is a prototype of my Baby Dragon pattern which I’m currently in the process of updating.
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Sewing One Edge
Depending on the type of flat piece you’re working with, there are a few ways to approach sewing. For the baby dragon, I’ll just be sewing the very end of the wing to the body.
Using the yarn tail leftover from the wing and my tapestry needle, I first went through one row on the body. Then I circled back and wove the yarn through one stitch on the side of the wing edge. Since the surface area of the edge I was sewing was so small, I only looped back around twice more, working through the body and the wing in a spiral.
Then I tied a few small knots, both to the body stitches and the wing stitches to make sure the attachment was secure. Finally, I wove the the yarn through to the other side of the body and trimmed the excess.
Sewing the Entire Edge
Sometimes you’ll crochet flat panels that need to be sewn entirely to your project, such as the belly of a whale. In order to sew the entire edge of a piece that will lay flat against your closed piece you’ll need to work a little differently.
Let’s look at Onyx the Owl for example. His headpiece and tail are all one flat piece sewn onto a closed body.
Using the yarn tail from the flat piece and a tapestry needle, I started by again inserting the needle through a row on the body. Then I inserted my needle into one of the stitches on the edge going from the top down. Then I wove the needle through the next row on the body. These 2 steps were repeated for the entire edge of the piece.
The one downside to this method is that it does leave a distinct seam. However, if you sew very neatly, it’s a look that you can lean into. I really like the ‘handmade’ look in my toys.
If you want your attachment to be seamless, instead of inserting your needle into the edge stitches from the top down, you’ll insert from the bottom up. Then insert your needle directly into the next edge stitch from the top down before going into the body. Whereas the previous method is like sewing in figure 8 shape, this method is more of an alternating U shape. Check out the image below where I used different color yarns.
If you’d like to practice attachments like this, check out my free Sia the Strawberry Squid pattern!
Sewing Open Pieces to a Closed Piece
When it comes to assembling amigurumi, you’re more likely to encounter this kind of situation where you’re sewing open pieces to a closed piece. Of course it depends on the pattern and the style of construction that the designer prefers.
Still in this instance, you would be sewing the open end of a piece to the project like I did with the spikes on this dragon.
Using the yarn tails from the spikes and a tapestry needle, I first inserted the needle through one row of the body. Then I inserted my needle into one of the stitches on the bottom edge (working through both loops) going from the top down. Then I wove the needle through the next row on the body. I repeated this process around the entire base of each spike.
While the spikes were not stuffed, the feet needed to be. So I followed the same steps for each foot, but paused after sewing about 70% of the way around. I then added stuffing before sewing the rest of the edge to the body.
When you’re sewing open pieces and adding stuffing as you go, be careful not to over stuff. Not only do you not want the stuffing to show through the stitches, but you should keep an eye on the overall silhouette of the project. For example, if you’re sewing on a leg and over stuff the thigh part, your animal could look a little silly and out of proportion. However, in cases like this, the pattern should specify which limbs should be under-stuffed.
Sewing Closed Pieces to a Closed Piece
Finally, sewing a closed piece to a closed piece is a little different than the other situations. How you go about attaching them depends on the pieces themselves and the goal of the overall project. For example, let’s say you’re making a doll and want the arms to rotate independently from the body. You would sew only a single point between the arm and the shoulder. (Or you could use plastic joint connectors, but that’s a topic for another day.)
On the other end of the spectrum, if you want a piece to be stationary and full attached to the main body, you’ll need to sew a larger surface area.
Let’s take another look at the baby dragon example. I created two small horns that I stuffed and sewed shut, leaving a tail for sewing. Typically, this is not how I would make these two pieces because I think it’s easier to leave them open like the spikes, but it provided a good example for this project.
To create a flat-ish base for each of the horns to attach to the body, I did one row of back loop only stitches. This more easily distinguishes the cone shape of the horn from it’s flat, circular base. Plus it leaves a row of unworked front loops exposed, which helps when it comes to sewing. To be clear, most of the time, you’ll have to sew in between stitches rather than use exposed loops like this.
Either way, to sew these horns down, I used the yarn tail and a tapestry needle to go into the body, working around one stitch or row at a time. Then I inserted my needle into one of the exposed front loops from the top down. And then I repeated these steps around the entire base of the horn.
Summary
Whew! I know that was a lot! I hope you enjoyed this article and I’m curious what your thoughts are on sewing. Is it something you tolerate doing or you do you like watching a project come together? Share your thoughts in the comments below! Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter so you never miss a new article, pattern or special event!
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Have a beautiful day and I’ll see you next time! Happy stitching!