Finishing Amigurumi Tutorial: Sewing the body closed and hiding yarn ends

Finishing Amigurumi Tutorial - Awkward Soul

What do you do are making an amigurumi and you finish the last row of the main body. You may have a neat little circle opening that needs to be sewn shut. The amigurumi instructions say something like “Fasten off, sew the body shut.”

Here’s what to do when you need to close an amigurumi form:

TIP: This works best for 6 stitches remaining. More than that, I’d a number of decreases until you get 6 stitches left.

1. If you haven’t done so already, Slip stitch the next stitch, snip the yarn with a few inches of leftover, and pull the thread through.

Thread the yarn tail.

Finishing Amigurumi by Awkward Soul (1)

2. Insert the needle into the next stitch, and out the stitch after that.Finishing Amigurumi by Awkward Soul (2)

3. Insert the needle the same way as the previous step, but for the next pair of stitches.

Finishing Amigurumi by Awkward Soul (3)

Keep doing this until all stitches are worked in this manner.

Finishing Amigurumi by Awkward Soul (4)

Finishing Amigurumi by Awkward Soul (5)

I left large loops to help show, but more often you won’t have big loops like this.

4. Pull the yarn tail, which will close the circle closed. Do not pull too hard as the yarn could snap.

Finishing Amigurumi by Awkward Soul (6)

5. Knot off the tail. I insert the needle in the next stitch and tie the yarn off from its loop to secure the tail. Do this as neatly as possible if this is the top head of an amigurumi.

Finishing Amigurumi by Awkward Soul (7)

Now, what to do with that yarn tail?

Hiding the Yarn ends/tail

Use this method to hide the yarn tail. This method works for all yarn tails, such as tails leftover from sewing on legs/arms/head/tail.

1.  Using your needle with the yarn end threaded, stick the needle through the body of the amigurumi – through the stuffing.

Finishing Amigurumi by Awkward Soul (9)

As you can see here, I made the needle go right through the entire shell.  At least have it go an inch or so through the body. You can squish the body to help the needle pass more distance.

Finishing Amigurumi by Awkward Soul (10)

2. Pull the yarn through. If you place your fingers against the body while you pull the yarn, you are less likely to have stuff fuzz out.

Finishing Amigurumi by Awkward Soul (11)

3. Snip off the excess yarn tail. If there is a bit of contrasting yarn colour peeking out, use your crochet hook to stab it back inside the amigurumi.

Finishing Amigurumi by Awkward Soul (12)

And you are done!

The turtle featured in this tutorial is my Turt the Turtle Amigurumi Pattern!

Turt Turtle Amigurumi - awkwardsoul (8)

2 thoughts on “Finishing Amigurumi Tutorial: Sewing the body closed and hiding yarn ends

  1. This is great! Yes, if you don’t know how to “finish off” like myself you end up practically ruining your cute critter. 🙁 Thank you!!!!!!!!!

Comments are closed.