Mattress Stitch

Seams Here’s the neatest seam imaginable for stockinette stitch and most knitted fabrics.

Nearly invisible, it can be worked vertically or horizontally.

For a vertical seam:

Lay your pieces flat, with the right sides of the fabric facing you, matching patterns, if applicable.

Thread a blunt-end yarn needle with your sewing yarn, then bring the needle up from back to front through the left-hand piece of fabric, 1 stitch from the edge, leaving a 6"/[15cm] tail.

Bring the yarn up and through the corresponding spot on the right-hand piece to secure the lower edges.

Insert the needle from front to back into the same stitch on the left-hand piece and bring it up through the stitch in the row above.

Insert the needle from front to back into the same stitch on the right-hand piece and bring it up through the stitch in the row above.

Repeat the last two steps until you’ve sewn approximately 2"/[5cm], then pull firmly on the sewing yarn to bring the pieces of the fabric together, allowing the 2 stitches on the edges of each piece to roll to the wrong side.

Continue this way until your seam is complete.

For a horizontal seam:

Lay your pieces flat with the right sides of the fabric facing you and with the bound-off edges of the pieces together.

Bring the needle up through the center of a stitch just below the bound-off edge on the lower piece of fabric, then insert it from front to back and from right to left around both legs of the corresponding stitch on the other piece of fabric.

Bring the needle tip back down through the center of the same stitch where it first emerged.

Continue this way until your seam is complete.