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