How to crochet a straight seam working in joined rounds with HDC stitches

Posted on 11 August 2018

When I designed my latest crochet dress pattern, the Simple Dress To Impress, I noticed an issue that was bothering me: a diagonal seam. The dress is made with half double crochet stitches and is worked in joined rounds. This means you start every round with a chain and end with a slip stitch in the first stitch. First I tried to ignore the diagonal seam, but I really didn’t like it and decided to start over with a better method. Here I will explain what I did to crochet a straight seam working in joined rounds with HDC stitches.

I searched online for some techniques that could be used, but most of them were meant for hats and other stitches like single crochet stitches. I experimented a bit with the tips and tricks and finally found a method that seamed (😉) to work for the dress. This method can be very helpful when crocheting hats, clothing, or anything else worked in joined rounds.

The grey part of the dress has a diagonal seam, after that I switched to a new method. Pattern: Simple Dress to Impress

MY LATEST VIDEOS

Some of my free crochet patterns

: Ana Lucia Shawl

: Stripe Me Shawl

: Simple double brim hat

: Bracelet

: Tooth plushie

How to crochet a straight seam working in joined rounds

The problem of a diagonal seam is caused by the shape of a HDC stitch. Since we pull yarn through 3 loops, it will always be pulled to the right. We can compensate that by changing where we start and end a round. With the method I’m going to explain, we start every second row in the second stitch and end in the first stitch.

Abbreviations:
ch: chain
sl st: slip stitch
hdc: half double crochet

Note: chains do not count as a stitch

Round 1: ch 2, 1 hdc in the same stitch as the sl st, 1 hdc in every stitch till end, sl st in first hdc.

Round 2: ch 1, skip the first stitch where you made the sl st and start in the second stitch, 1 hdc in every stitch till end, make the last hdc in the stitch that we skipped by working over the chain, sl st in first hdc.

Repeat row 1 to 2 as many times as you need.

Video

To make it easier, I made a video tutorial about how to crochet a straight seam working in joined rounds with HDC stitches.

* Click here to watch the video on YouTube

Questions?

If you have any questions about my patterns, yarn or sizing, feel free to join my Facebook Group. I created this group for you to share pictures/ progress, ask questions and to help each other out.

Get notifications of my new patterns sent straight to your inbox!

Wilma

Hi! I'm Wilma, 22 years old and living in both the Netherlands and Germany. Passionated about crochet and sharing free crochet patterns on my blog. I would love to connect with you via social media!