Steek Issues

So I finally plucked up the courage to cut my steeks and I've run into some issues since, which have yet again caused me to stop knitting.  

The pattern instructions said to cut down the middle of each steek then reinforce by the addition of a crochet chain stitch or machine stitching 1.5 stitches from the cut line.

The problem that I've encountered is fraying.  The crochet chain stitch is not holding well; I'm unable to machine down the edge of the steek because my machine won't stitch this and I'm now afraid that if I'm not really careful, the whole lot is going to unravel along with my nerves!

The solution would seem to be to hand stitch along both sides of each steek, which is going to be incredibly time-consuming, but I have no option if I am to salvage weeks of knitting.  As it is, I hardly dare touch these edges because they are so fragile.

I know that I said that my theme for this month is joy, but I'm not finding much joy in this project at the moment.  Hopefully, there will be some joy to share once I get over this latest hurdle.