A part-finished fleece bear with a tuft of stuffing beside it

Stitching The notebook

The ladder stitch: closing a softie so nobody can find the gap

How to close the stuffing opening on a sewn toy with an invisible ladder stitch, and how to finish it so it never pulls open.

Pinned up on

Almost every sewn toy is stitched inside out, turned, stuffed, and then left with one hole to close by hand. The ladder stitch (also called a slip stitch or invisible stitch) closes it from the outside so neatly that the seam looks machine-sewn. It is the most useful hand stitch a softie maker has.

The idea is simple. The seam allowances on both sides of the gap are already folded in. You take small stitches inside the fold on one side, then the other, like the rungs of a ladder. When you pull the thread, the rungs disappear and the folds meet.

Fold and pin the opening

You need

  • two pins

Fold both seam allowances inwards along the line the machine seam would have taken. Pin across the gap at both ends. If the fold wanders, the closed seam will have a bump, so line it up with the machine stitching on each side.

Start from inside the machine seam

You need

  • thread, doubled and knotted

Bring the needle out through the fold 5 mm before the gap, inside the existing machine seam. Starting on the stitched part locks the end of the opening and hides the knot.

Make the rungs

You need

  • the needle

Cross straight over to the opposite fold. Go in exactly opposite where the thread came out, run the needle 4 mm along inside the fold, and come out. Cross back straight over and repeat. Every crossing stitch should be perpendicular to the seam. A slanted rung shows up as a little visible zig-zag.

Leave the first five or six rungs loose so you can see them.

Pull the seam shut

You need

  • nothing extra

Hold the start of the seam and pull the thread gently but firmly. The folds roll in and meet, and the rungs disappear. Carry on in groups of five rungs, pulling after each group, until you are 5 mm into the machine seam at the other end.

Lock the end and bury the tail

You need

  • the long needle

Make a small knot close to the fabric, then push the needle into the seam and out of the toy 8 to 10 cm away. Tug so the knot pops through into the stuffing, squeeze the toy slightly and snip the thread at the surface. The tail retracts inside, and the knot is anchored in fibrefill, not on the seam line.

For a toy that will be played with hard, use doubled polyester thread and 3 mm rungs instead of 4 mm. It takes longer, and it will hold.