E:\PAGESEW\RUFFTEXT\ROUGH015.TXT
edited 23 April 2015
RIPPING SEAMS AND REMOVING STITCHES
There are countless ways to remove unwanted stitches,
and innumerable combinations. You will probably use more
than one method on each seam you remove; ripping is boring
work. Varying your methods breaks up the monotony -- and
carries the delicious hope that you will hit on the one that
goes brrrp! and the seam is out.
For most ripping, a seam ripper is an essential tool --
a seam ripper is a small forked awl, with one long, pointed
finger, one short, blunt finger, and a razor-sharp arc
between. By working the long finger under a stitch, you can
cut a thread without any risk to the fabric. By turning the
ripper over, to use the back of the long finger, you can
lift threads without cutting them. Higher-grade seam
rippers have finer fingers, sharper arcs, and more-
comfortable handles; a little extra spent on the ripper can
make the work much easier.
Because the razor edge is located where it can't cut
anything that you don't force between the fingers, a seam
ripper seems like a safe tool to use -- but a point fine
enough to pick up a single thread is quite sharp enough to
slice through fabric that it's drawn over with force, and
this is surprisingly easy to do by mistake if you keep the
seam ripper in your hand while fiddling around with the seam
you are ripping. When you aren't using the ripper, either
put it down or remain aware of where the sharp end is.
You will also need eyebrow tweezers and a whisk broom or
clothes brush. Small scissors and a fine awl, large pin, or
long needle sometimes assist the seam ripper, or pinch-hit
when you haven't got one.
If you are both bold and careful, razor blades and
scalpels have their uses. There is a special scalpel for
removing overlocked seams.
If the thread is rotten, brrrp does happen. Just take
one piece of fabric in each hand and tear the seam open,
breaking stitches all the way. Needless to say, this is a
hazardous method unless the fabric is very strong, the
thread is very weak, and you are sure that there are no weak
places where the fabric will tear instead of the stitches.
In addition, it leaves a large number of short bits of
broken thread to pick out. If you are going to cut off some
of the punctured fabric, settle for brushing both sides with
a whisk broom, and tweeze only the part you keep.
Using the whisk broom before the tweezers is nearly
always a good idea. Even if it doesn't remove many threads,
it makes the remaining threads stand up for easier plucking.
18 May 2005: While reading an old book, I came across
an obvious precaution I'd never thought of: When tearing a
seam open, tear from the wide end of the fabric to the
narrow end, so that the threads direct stress off the cut
edge, rather than aiming it into the body of the fabric.
If you pull a worn seam open gently, so that the threads are
stretched between folds of cloth, you can sometimes see how
you can encourage brrp to happen. It's probably a good idea
to pull off any loose threads that present themselves; doing
so often undoes several stitches.
Some chain-stitched and overlocked seams will unzip when
you unravel the correct end, but there is seldom any clue as
to which end that is, so that it's often quicker to cut the
stitches one at a time. Sometimes finding the unravel-able
end on one seam will enable you to identify the unravel-able
end on other seams; in this case, the time spent searching
may be repaid. Some multi-thread seams are so complicated
to cut that extra time spent hunting for the magic thread is
worth while -- but they are also complicated to unravel:
you can work on the correct end for quite a while without
freeing all the threads at the same time, and they may re-
tangle after being sorted out.
If you hand-basted with running stitches, cut the thread
into pieces and pluck out the pieces. If the basting thread
isn't very long, you can remove it by pulling on the knot,
or by cutting off the knot and pulling on the other end. If
the fabric gathers as you pull, cut the thread where cutting
it will release the puckers. If hand basting turns a
corner, cut the thread at the corner.
Back stitches have to be removed one at a time --
luckily, backstitching is seldom put in by mistake. To
remove a running back stitch, cut the thread at each back
stitch and pull out the running stitches between.
If all the stitches are back stitches, unravel them
until the end is inconveniently long, then cut the next
stitch. It's usually easier to unravel by separating the
layers and plucking at the stretched threads than to pull
out threads from one side or the other. Another plan is to
cut the stitches on the outline-stitch side, and pick the
bits out from the back-stitch side.
If you unpick from the end toward the beginning, you
will find fewer places where the end you want to pull out is
pierced by another part of the thread.
Most of the time you will be removing lock stitch -- the
ordinary sewing-machine stitch in which a bobbin is passed
through a loop of needle thread.
If you set up your basting by using a slick or strong
thread in the bobbin, loosening the top tension, and
lengthening the stitch, you can undo it by pulling out the
bobbin thread. As with hand basting, cut the bobbin thread
whenever it threatens to gather the fabric.
Sometimes you can withdraw the bobbin thread from
stitching you didn't mean to take out, if you loosen the
needle thread by cutting it every inch or every half-inch.
If the cuts in one thread are close enough together, the
other thread can be peeled off, popping the bits of the cut
thread through the fabric and standing them up for plucking.
When basting, it is a good idea to use needle thread
that is different from your bobbin thread, so that you can
tell which is the bobbin thread when it's time to take it
out. I keep a bobbin wound with a double thread for
basting; usually with mismatched threads -- partly to make
it easier to recognize the double-wound bobbin, and partly
because I seldom have two spools of the same thread left
over. In addition to making it obvious which thread is the
bobbin thread, a double thread is stronger, so that it can
be pulled out in bigger pieces, and stiffer, so that it runs
straighter. It usually isn't necessary to loosen the top
tension when the bobbin thread is double and the needle
thread is single.
I have come to prefer a doubled cotton thread to silk or
nylon for gathering and easing threads. This is partly
because silk is expensive and nylon is hard to find, but
mostly because the cotton thread *doesn't* slip easily. The
strength of the doubled thread allows me to pull hard to get
the gathers into position, and then they stay put --
sometimes I can cut the ends of the gathering thread short
without releasing the gathers, which makes it easier to
avoid stitching the ends of the gathering thread into the
seam.
If neither the bobbin thread nor the needle thread is
easy to remove, separate the layers and pick out the
stretched stitches between them until the lengthening thread
makes it hard to stretch the stitches, then cut a stitch.
Cut the least-stretched stitch that it is easy to get
the seam ripper under. If it is easy to cut stitches that
haven't been stretched at all, choose your distance by the
length of seam that unravels on each side of a cut.
Sometimes one can simply run a razor-sharp knife between
the layers, cutting stitches all the way, but there is risk
of cutting the fabric, and the time saved on ripping might
be spent picking out teeny bits of thread.
A sewing bird can serve as a third hand for this
operation. Pull the seam open until you see a stretched
thread, then touch the thread -- being very careful not to
touch the fabric -- with the edge of a razor blade. If the
thread is thick, pull the blade toward you slightly as you
touch, which has a sawing effect. With luck, several
stitches will unravel when the thread parts.
Do not under any circumstances push the blade through
the thread; this will cause a slight jerk when the thread
parts, and the razor edge is very close to the fabric.
You can hold a single-edge razor blade by the bit of
sheet metal that's folded over the back, or you can instal
it in a little handle that you find near the razor blades at
the hardware store. I prefer the naked blade, but the
handle does have the advantage that you can take the blade
out and put it back in backward, making a tool that it's
quite safe to have rattling around in a drawer. For
carrying a blade in my purse or pocket, I leave the original
cardboard sheath on and put it into a card case or other
secure container.
You can also use a seam ripper, scissors, or a pointy
scalpel to cut threads in a seam that's under tension. All
of these implements must be put under the thread that is to
be cut, not stroked from above as you would use a razor
blade.
Anything that will hold one end of the seam firmly can
serve as a sewing bird: pin it to upholstery, pin it to the
knee of your pants, use a clothes pin or a C clamp, set one
leg of a treadle sewing machine on it . . .
When you particularly don't want to hunt down bits of
thread, use the seam ripper to lift a tag of the needle
thread, and peel it back until the bobbin thread stops
popping through, then break it by pulling harder in the same
direction that you were pulling to pop the other thread.
Turn to the other side, lift up the tag of bobbin thread,
and peel it back until the needle thread stops popping
through. Repeat until bored. If the stitches aren't
terribly small, the threads come out in pieces large enough
to dispose of easily.
If the thread is too short to pull hard enough to break
it, or too strong to break safely, cut the needle thread
close to the fabric. I usually use the seam ripper to cut
the thread, because I've already got it in my hand to lift
the tag with.
When taking old garments apart to salvage the cloth,
assess the condition of the fabric in the seams. If it's
badly worn, it may be that the best way to remove the old
seam is to cut or tear the fabric.
When sewing, think ahead to the possibility that you may
want to repair, renovate, or re-use the garment. When
talking about durability, I recommended the longest stitch
that is short enough, to improve the chances that undue
stress will produce an easily-repaired rip instead of a
ruinous tear. Longest-acceptable stitches also are easier
to remove. When you know for sure that you are going to
alter a garment before the year is out, consider merely
basting hems and other parts that aren't under much strain.
Ripping and renovation require more imagination and
ingenuity than making new clothing -- you have to deal with
what is at hand, and the stuff at hand may not have read the
book.
EOF