Or, how to master the fine art of frogging – ripit, ripit.
It came to my attention recently that there are a lot of sewers out there who think all is puppies and rainbow pooping unicorns frolicking in the glorious sewing rooms of the famous (or infamous) that post on social media. They have become disheartened about their abilities and fear that their regular old pooping cat is the highest of heights that they will attain. That’s actually pretty disheartening to me because there are definitely no puppies or unicorns here, pooping rainbows or otherwise, so I thought I’d treat you all to what I spent most of yesterday doing – ripping, both seams and quilting. Wasn’t I a lucky girl?!
A seam ripper is something to be found in every sewer’s arsenal, and trust me, we all use one. The funny thing is that many of us don’t know how to use one properly. I’ll admit I was one of those people, I mean you kind of think it’s something that can’t have that many options, there’s really not a lot to that little tool, but a nasty comment made on someone’s Facebook post a few years ago that said ‘I bet she doesn’t even know how to use a seam ripper properly’ made me ponder (aka Google), was I doing it wrong? Yes, yes I was. It still wasn’t obvious exactly how it worked though, so after someone was kind enough to show me in real life, I thought I’d make this little video that would walk you through it, given that I had some lovely opportunities to rip:
The video is only 4 minutes long, and I’ll take you through the anatomy of a seam ripper before I show you how I ripped this seam:
And how I removed this rather heinous FMQ (don’t quilt tired kids!)
So don’t give up, it happens to us all, and there are more master froggers than you’d imagine out there ;o)
Thank .you for the lovely video. Long armer use a variation on your first method to rip out quilting using a ripper that is more blade like. They run the blade between quilt back and batting so as to not hit the pieces seams. It is quite fast for when there is lots of quilting to remove and does not risk damaging the quilt front. There are some videos in the internet.
So totally off the point of your (very good) video–you have a really nice speaking voice!!
So fun to hear your voice. Thanks for the tutorial.
Great tutorial for using a seam ripper. For many years I relied on my trusty little pocket knife for ripping seams because using a seam ripper seemed to take too long. I had a picker not a ripper. Perhaps later today I’ll get a chance to use it the right way. ;o)
well, that was very useful Katie. I didn’t know the first method you used, and only discovered about the rubber the other day. A whole new series in “obvious things i should know but don’t” for you? Nice to hear your voice, and I enjoyed a cup of coffee with you whilst watching this
If you don’t have (or, hem, can’t find) the seam ripper with the rubber tip, another method of unsewing straight lines …. put the pointy bit under a stitch about an inch into the sewing, and cut the thread, pull out that first inch of thread, that’s the most fiddly part. Flip over, pull up the thread ‘tail’ on the back – it’ll lift and will undo a few more stitches. Use the pointy bit to cut the thread about an inch further along. Pull the tail and it should come out. Flip over and repeat cutting one stitch on one side then the other
Thanks Katy, that was helpful.