Hi everyone! Hate to be so stupid, but I am! This was my first attempt at a garment & I was fairly pleased till I got to the dreaded seaming up. My kimono arm selvages are all jagged. I did my increases using the thumb method cast on and then just the basic bind-off. Should I have used a different way to increase and bind off on the sleeve? Also, trying to seam even the straight side seams is difficult to me. Its hard to distinguish the individual little loops to thread the yarn through. Oh, and should I use yarn to seam or maybe embroidery thread? Thanks for any help!
Here is a link to a site that is an on-line knitting bookand there are good pictures and text about seaming. This is the contents page. Chapters 17-22 are about seams. Each chapter has several pages, look at the bottom of each page for how to get to the next page. There are also videos on the KH site about seaming.
The method of cast on and bind off you used should not be a problem. If you had to do repeated bind offs or cast-ons that created stair steps along the edge those can be hard to deal with. There are some tricks that can help with the bind-offs you may have had to do to create shaping. If the instructions are to bind off a certain number repeatedly at the beginning of the rows you can minimize the “steps” by working the last two stitches of the row [U]before[/U] together and then binding off one less than it says. So as you come to the end of the row before the bind off row, work 2tog and then turn back and do the bind offs at the beginning of the next row, but bind off one less. You may be able to utilize a short row technique too. You could look into that and see if would work in your case.
I always sew up with yarn from my project if I can. One of the reasons you wouldn’t be able to is if the yarn is too unstable. If you take a piece of yarn and put a little pressure on it as if to pull it apart (hold onto a piece with each hand about 3 inches apart and pull your hands away from each other), and it comes apart with only a little effort you should use something else to sew up with. Also you might want to use something else if your yarn is a novelty yarn or has a lot of nubs on it or something that makes it hard to pull through when sewing, or if it is very bulky you might prefer something else.
I hesitate to mention this but the lady who taught me to seam (she used to own the LYS and was an expert knitter) taught me to seam in a way that I have never seen in a book or on line anywhere. She learned it at a knitting workshop and preferred it above matress stitch. The reason I hesitate is I’m not sure I can tell you how to do it, but I’ll try.
On a seam where you would normally use matress stitch, like on the side seams of a sweater, this is how to do it. You want to work from one side to the other like in matress stitch, keeping things in line row for row as well as you can, especially if there are patterns or stripes you have to match. Turn the edge of the knitted fabic so that you are looking at the very edge (like if it was a sheet of paper you would be looking at the single thickness of the paper, the “edge”) Stick your threaded tapestry needle into that edge where you can find something substantial to grab onto. There are places where it is mostly air and places where there are kind of “knots”. Go in on one side of one of these “thick” places, under it and up on the other side of it. Then go to the other side you are seaming and do the same thing. Keep going back and forth this way. You can fudge if you have to to hurry one side along a little more than the other if you have to ease some extra length in on one side or another. If you have to do this easing, space it out over as much area as you can so it doesn’t get bunched up. It is quite a forgiving way to seam up and makes a nice result, similar to matress stitch. You could try if you can’t figure out where to stitch for matress stitch.
If I have big “steps” to sew over, I work the first place I can beyond the “step”, placing all of it in the seam. It makes for rather thick seams, but looks better on the outside.
Good luck. It takes quite a bit of practice to feel comfortable with seaming. Oh, always do the seaming from the public side of the piece and realize that what you see is what you get. If it looks good as you go that is good, if it looks bad you can take it out and try again.
I’ve made two of them and found that the seaming of garter stitch is never going to be quite as nice as stockinette, but it can look pretty good. I used these instructions… scroll down.
http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring04/mattress.html
On the sleeves I kind of did it sideways instead following the stitches so it was almost a duplicate stitch or weaving in ends technique. They are secure and don’t look too bad.
I did have to give it a couple tries though so you’re not alone. 
Here’s a link to my finished ones.
http://www.knittinghelp.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70212&highlight=Heartbreakingly+cute
Thank your both for your very helpful replies. What a great website, Merigold! And Jan, your kimonos are gorgeous!