I thought I’d go from the sublime to the ridiculous this week on the product review thing. Now I am not a sponsored blog (no-one is, as yet, anxious to take on that liability ;o) ) so all opinions herein are my own, for better, for worse and all that! Today’s subject is this little baby:
Now I may have mentioned to you that most of the quilt shops we visited on our travels tended towards the more traditional both fabric and pattern-wise, but they did, at least, tend to stock nifty tools that would appeal to all types of quilter. We noticed stands of these seam rippers (rather incongruously named ‘Seam Fix’) next to most of the tills, but despite making comments to several shop workers about the rather odd look and name, it wasn’t until we got to Flagstaff and Odegaard’s Sewing Center that someone finally decided to tell us what they did…
Picture this, you’ve just sewn a crazy mad line and lost the seam allowance on one side of your fabric made a bit of a booboo, and need to frog it. Grasping your trusty seam ripper, you rend the offending stitches asunder, leaving you with a trail of destruction in the form of lots of little bits of thread, guaranteed to get everywhere. To combat this, I tended to try and unpick rather than rip, which, while more time consuming, was considerably tidier!
Enter the Seam Fix! Ripping through those stitches, you finally find your two pieces of fabric with stringy wee bits of thread attached. Then, you put its lid on, and proceed to rub its rubbery top along the former stitching line, whereupon it grabs up said stringy wee bits of thread, gathering them about its person until you see fit to clean it off (a 2 second job) Check out this video demo:
I can’t begin to tell you the joy I found in using this little gem last Sunday when working on Susan’s block in the dreaded 1-9-10 section, so my old basic ripper has been relegated firmly to my travelling hand stitching kit, while this wee guy takes pride of place next to my sewing machine. I can see it getting quite a workout in quilting, dress and bag making!
‘Where can I get one?’ I hear you cry… Well if you’re in the US, probably your local quilt shop lol Otherwise there are a range of options online if you google ‘Seam Fix Seam Ripper’.
If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to build a little shrine, ‘All hail the Seam Fix’…
Sounds like the perfect tool for me and one that would get so much use too!
Cool gadget! I wonder would it gather up all the thread ends that end up over me too! Jxo
I've never seen one of these before but I can see that I HAVE to have one!
oooh that looks clever. How sexy is that video? I think I need a cigarette after watching that.
oh my gosh, love it – music in the video, i'm with kirsty, cigarette needed hahahah
How marvellous!
Never seen one of these before, excellent find!!
I think I'm going to have to get one of those, sounds very handy!
Cool!
Oh, wow! That's a bit clever.
Now that's a really cool tool. Must get one.
Sounds awesome! I always try to use my lint roller and it winds up making the edges of the fabric fray.
My German seam ripper takes no prisoners and is messy in the process – this is a cool gadget. I'll just pop down to my LQS…1300 miles away 🙁
Well, that looks cool. Frogging will never be the same. Thank God, eh? Xx
I just quilted my Retro flowers and may unpick the whole lot!!!! Need one!
Oh that totally deserves a shrine! I'm cutting out my first tova and I'm thinking one of those may be quite useful in the next day or two ;o)
Finding that I'm increasingly in need of a seam ripper as of late I'm thinking I need to get out there and find myself one of these little beauties.
It is very cute, I am going to see if they are at my local shop or not.
Love that tool, but laughing at the video. It was like quilter's porn!
Ok! So that swirled top really does pick up all those little threads? That's awesome! I usually use a lint roller, but sometimes those have the habit of grabbing the exposed edge of the fabric a little too roughly.
I seriously almost bought this for you but I wasn't sure if it actually worked so I decided against it. Glad to hear it actually DOES work! 🙂
Haha some of those comments but actually yes that naked point was just a bit provocative!
On my xmas list already!
Well if I still sewed, I would want one of those nifty little seam rippers.
I just got new glasses last month and even got a special pair for closeup work. So you never know I might just go looking for one of those rippers.
Hugs
Iris
Looks seriously awesome!
And it is so sharp! My local had them FOR THE SAME PRICE!
like it like it, have to have a look around for them.
Oooh, I need one of those! Maybe in every colour!
That is pretty kool..I want one now..lol