Hey Everyone, welcome back to Cool Tool Thursday.  This week is all about the seam ripper aka un-picker or reverse sewer.  I know it certainly is not my favourite tool in my box but only because it means that I have unwanted work that I will be doing.

I have always just used the seam ripper that came with my sewing machine, the same kind that my mom used all those years she spent making my clothes as a kid – boy, I was thrilled when I finally got my first pair of blue jeans from a store already made and ready to wear.

All right I digressed there a bit, back to seam rippers.  A few years ago when I was living in Australia and took a class from Leesa Seigal at Patchwork by Sea in Brighton, SA, she showed us this really cool seam ripper.  Now being a nurse I wish I had kind of thought about it long before – maybe could have marketed it and been rich – but someone else beat me to it, oh well.

This cool seam ripper actually has a stitch cutter on the end – the kind nurse’s use to remove stitches.  Very sharp and curved so it is easy to hook it under the stitches. This is the one I used to rip out that first Animal Party quilt.  Unfortunately, I am not sure what brand this seam ripper is as it does not have a brand name on it and it was a long time ago that I purchased it.  I did do a Google search of seam rippers and there appear to be many different brands offering similar products to this one, some with multiple blades.

The seam ripper with a surgical stitch remover on the end – very sharp.

The cool part is that you rip out the stitches on one side of the seam and then when finished just pull the thread on the other side and it comes off in one long thread sending all the little bits from the other side flying all over.  There are a few stray little bits that need to be picked out by hand but not many.

Here is a video demonstrating the use of the suture cutter as a seam ripper.

Coolness Factor – Quilts by Jen rates it 9 out of 10.

Usefulness Factor – Quilts by Jen rates it 10 out of 10.

Happy Quilting!