sewing

pleasant double needle seam ripping

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an offending 3/4-length sleeve (right side)

Impossible? That’s what I thought, Lovelies, and why I kept putting off the task. Probably the rest of you know already, but its a discovery for me.

Yesterday I had a nothing-matches-these-trousers crisis.

“Oh, yeah,” I thought. “There’s that RTW tan 3/4-length sleeve tee that I never wear (face of shame) because I hate the sleeve length.”

the bobbin side (wrong side)

Immediate crisis averted by my orange renfrew, I decided to let down those sleeves. Not a pleasant prospect. Grimly, I went for it.

Collecting my seam ripper & short nippers (see reference at end), and after downloading a recent BBC Women’s Hour podcast to sweeten the task, the ripping began.

After inserting the ripper on the right side of the double stitches I saw how much the pressure to cut the threads tightened the threads on either side, making it more difficult to get the ripper into the next stitches.   Hm.

i clipped both top & bottom rows simultaneously even though the bottom row doesn’t look as clipped as the top

As I had my thread nippers I tried them. Perfect. I was quickly round the first sleeve, nipping every other set of stitches.

 

couldn’t hold the camera & the nippers at the same time so had to put the nippers down to take the piccie

On the criss-crossed (bobbin) side,  remembering a recent, seemingly endless battle with a seam ripper, I decided to keep going with the nippers.

Again, they worked beautifully. I cut down the centre of the criss-crossed bobbin threads.

Then the fun part: Pulling out all those short threads. Apart from static cling, everything went quickly.

one done!

Success and one sleeve done!

A quick break for a cuppa, and the second sleeve was done before the podcast ended.

As this is an old tee I don’t mind the un-hemmed look, and am chuffed to have it done.

PS/Did I mention that Vogue’s having a sale? Maybe I shouldn’t… forget I mentioned it.

😄    😄   😄

click to go to Vogue Fabrics’ listing for the top thread clippers – only $1.49 and they’re all metal!

17 thoughts on “pleasant double needle seam ripping”

  4. Very brave! Luckily, having already succumbed to a local fabric sale having said that I wouldn’t buy any more fabric – well, there was 70, yes 70%, off all his patchwork fabric – your Vogue site is in the U.S. so I’m safe.

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    1. Isn’t there a percentage of patchwork leaving your atelier, albeit in different forms, as sale items in support of humane endeavours? Seems fairly logical that a whopping 70% off might be wisdom… as long as delivery can be accomplished without a fork lift. . .
      😉

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  5. I already have my Vogue list! Although I should refrain but I just can’t help myself! … Sometimes those seam ripping tasks are the worst only because we keep putting them off. Then we finally do it and realize it wasn’t so bad after all!

    Liked by 1 person

      1. I know when I want patterns I have to go in to the store… (Sure wish we could order them at that price!) OH, and JoAnns has the worst Customer Service. Last time I was in I asked the girl if the calicos were on sale and she said, “I don’t really know.” What kind of answer is that??

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