Two Most Common Ways to Join Motifs

When it comes to finishing a project, the seaming and joining can be daunting. Projects like granny square blankets or crocheted pillows often need to be seamed once the stitching is complete. In this video, crochet expert Mary Beth Temple demonstrates two simple ways to join motifs. Choose the method that works best for you and your project!

For the demonstration, Mary Beth uses crocheted granny squares, noting that these joining methods will work on anything. She first explores joining the granny squares with whip stitch using a tapestry needle. The yarn is threaded onto the blunt-tip tapestry needle and she pulls the yarn through one of the motifs, leaving a 4 to 6-inch tail to weave in later. With Right Sides together, Mary Beth works the whip stitch on the two motifs to join them together. She makes sure that the seam is firm, but not too tight. If the seam is too tight it will put too much tension on the seam and it will start to pucker.

Once the whip stitch is complete, Mary Beth moves on to a single crochet seam. For this seam, she starts with a slip stitch to attach the yarn to one of the motifs. She works this seam with Right Sides together and works single crochets by going under both legs of a stitch on each motif (under 4 legs total). This makes for a very durable and sturdy seam, but also one that is bulkier than the whip stitch. The Wrong Side of the motifs have the single crochet seam stitches. From the Right Side, the seam looks similar to the whip stitch.