5 Tips for Perfect Amigurumi Part Attachment
Amigurumi part attachment is often the scariest aspect of amigurumi for beginners. Making small pieces isn’t hard or scary, but attaching them evenly and without visible stitches often holds people back from ever trying amigurumi.
Adding amigurumi to my crochet arsenal was the best thing I ever did. However, I will admit it took me several months and hours of internet surfing to correct my obvious seams and my crooked parts.
As with all crochet, math is key. I know….EW! MATH! But a little math goes a long way in making your amigurumi part attachment run smoothly.
1.Think of every part as a square.
For the sake of this lesson, we are going to use attaching legs to a Trumpeting Elephant as our example.
The open end of the elephant leg has 16 stitches around. To attach it evenly and straight, you need to attach it to the body in a square with equal sides. This means each side needs to have 4 stitches. (4 x 4 = 16)
Even circular parts need to be evenly attached, so assuming that every part becomes a square for the sake of attachment will keep your parts even and in line.
2. Mark Everything
Marking your stitches will help you so much in the long run. And pins are not just for beginners.
For a leg with 4 stitches on each side, the leg will span 4 rows x 4 stitches. The best way to make sure your legs are straight is to mark the four corners of your square on the body.
Be sure you are counting 4 stitches between each corner. That way you will work 4 stitches up, 4 left, 4 down, and 4 right, and you will arrive back at your starting stitch.
3. Up Through The Stitch…
To make the seam between your leg and the body smooth and invisible, always thread your needle up through the stitch, down through the body in the stitch directly below it, then up from the body 1 stitch to the left.
Come up through the next stitch, down through the body in the same stitch from which you just came, then up from the body 1 stitch to the left.
This will keep your stitches even and will pull the top of the stitch flush against the body so that they don’t show. It will look like the stitches between the body and the leg naturally flow together.
4. Weave In Ends at the END of the Project
When you get a your first leg attached, it is tempting to bind off and weave in the ends. DON’T!
Especially with something like legs, something that needs to be even in order for your critter to stand up, you need to leave those ends loose until the very end.
If one of those legs is a little off, you need to be able to pull out those whip stitches and move the leg, and if you bind off and weave in the ends, you will have to CUT the yarn and make a new leg in order to do it. And that just causes unnecessary heartbreak.
Always wait to weave in your ends until the pieces are ALL exactly where you want them.
5. Trust Your Designer, But Be Prepared To Think For Yourself
A good amigurumi designer will guide you through amigurumi part attachment with as much accuracy as possible. Most will give you a range of stitches where to attach parts and how many stitches to place things apart.
But some patterns require a little more “artist interpretation.” This means you need to mark the body like crazy and get your parts positioned the way you want them without the designer’s guidelines. Patterns like this make it all the more important to do the math, mark your stitches, and wait to weave in your ends.
No matter what, don’t get frustrated if your amigurumi has crooked legs, or a bobbly head, or even lopsided ears. Keep trying. Don’t give up. And never stop hooking.
Yarn on,
Kati
Kati is the designer behind Hooked by Kati. With thousands of patterns sold around the world, Kati prides herself in creating innovative, easy-to-follow amigurumi patterns. She has designed for several publications, including Crochet!, Crochet World, Simply Crochet, and I Like Crochet. Kati finds her inspiration in science fiction, video games, and numerous visits to the zoo — all passions she shares with her husband and two boys.
I don’t get all the color changes on the body of the squirrel.
I am attempting to make Schnitzel and i am confused on how to attach the legs. I have watched your tutorial on attaching parts, but cannot seem to see how to attach them. Any pointers that can make this easier for me?
This is helpful- it’s pretty much the same as seaming together pieces that are hand knit. I think that knitters who have picked up crochet have an advantage!
Thank you for these tips! I’m just getting started with ami and attaching pieces is intimidating! If not done well, the whole project suffers. Will def use this approach!
Hello, I am making Toby the Newborn Dragon from the pattern I purchased from you recently.
For the Wing Cartilage, it does not say which surface stitch to use. It says see Special Stiches but there is the Surface sl st and the Surface dc.. I have also seen on your video a Surface stitch that is worked from the back.
I am enjoying the pattern but am stuck on this part. Your help would be much appreciated.
Many thanks.
Kathleen
I have a kit for an alpaca that is really troublesome. I tried to attach the head to the body, but the two parts keep flopping over. The head is round-ish and rather large but the body is long and thin. I am not sure whether the design is strange or it is operator error as the head seems too heavy for the body. There are 18 stitches at the top of the body and 6 on the head. I am at a complete loss. I think with your instructions I can attach the arms, legs, ears and tail, but the head and body don’t even look like the photo on the box. And I am not a beginning crocheter! Any suggestions? Thank you!
Hi Pat,
If both ends are open, I would close one by decreasing until it is closed and pulling tight so you have a rounded area to work on. If the neck seems floppy, make a second neck one round smaller than the original (so 12 sts around if it is 18) and stuff it down in the original neck, then stuff with polyfil to stiffen it so it can support more weight.
Good luck!
Hi Kati, I couldn’t figure out how to get a message to you but once the legs are sewn on what do you do with the tail? Also for any of the remaining attachments? Your tutorials are well explained except for the very last part. It seems like most designers never explain how to hide the tail once the pieces are attached. Your help would be greatly appreciated.
I having a question about the body on the squirrel pattern. I don’t understand how you crochet 6 round on the body, then change color when the brown color is one direction and the tan color is another direction. Thanks for ur help.
I am totally new at this and realized that I overstuffed the head for Schnitzel so now I have to open the head back up and remove some. My problem is I am confused with attaching the ears. Do I sew the turned in part of the ears before stitching them to the head and I am not sure how to correctly attach the ears.
If there’s a way of misunderstanding I find it – I read the title as part attaching pieces and I thought it meant you combined joining of 2 pieces with a 3rd something I’d never heard of ( funnily enough) but as soon as I started to read I realised my mistake but thank you for a very clear tut of attaching pieces together I hoped to get more sensible as I grew older but I don’t hold out much hope now!
Oh god I wish I’d seen this (and your tutorial on attaching two round parts) years ago, or even weeks ago. I have to cut Murdock the Kelpie’s head and body apart. Fortunately for me I did NOT use mattress stitch so most likely I won’t have to ruin the head. And fortunately I gave up before attaching the legs. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
thank you thank you thank you, this is my worst nightmare with Ami. But I keep plugging away. Somtimes im spot on and sometimes i just want to trash it. Cant wait to try this on my next one.