Home made handy dandy gadgets

my handy-dandy gadget is a seam roll made from a scrap of pinwale corduroy. I rolled a strip of it very tightly and whipped it together with needle and thread. The texture of the corduroy seems to grip the fabric just a little and lets me press seams open without leaving marks on the out side of the garment. I have used it for the past 15 years without any problems and it is one of my favorite tools. This is a fun thread, let's keep it going.

Martha

I use an old broom handle for items too narrow to fit on my seam roll. And I use a hemostat as a sewing bird when I need a third hand.

I like your magnet idea! This probably belongs in the machine-embroider newsgroup, but after I started doing a lot of embroidery, I found a bent-tip hemostat

and suture-removal scissors (Littauer) Now I also have them near my regular sewing machine as well. For years, I have also kept a clear plastic bag pinned to the wall near my ironing board to hold scraps of fusible interfacing. I use it for mending patterns, reinforcing buttonholes, etc.

Beverly

I have a child's size leaf rake. I put a piece of conduit over the handle to make it longer. I use it in my sewing room it's perfect to pick up threads and small scraps that choke my vacuum.

I made a sewing bird by drilling a hole in one handle of a wooden clamp-type clothespin. Loop thin twine through the hole, tie the other end to a chair leg or a safety pin, and it's a third hand for keeping fabric taut while hand sewing, It fits easily into my pocket with the thread, thimble, needle, and scissors.

I made the original one with a drill. I mislaid it one day, grabbed a pin from the clothespin bag and a paring knife off the magnet -- a few twists later, I had a new sewing bird much easier than using the drill. (Note: when the point of the knife starts to show, start drilling from the other side to make a neater hole.)

I carry a pair of these birds in my suitcase: they double as a way to convert a dress hanger into a pants hanger.

Joy Beeson

Good thread, Val! Those pink foam hair rollers are handy in the sewing room. Remove/discard the plastic frame, use the foam part.

Fit the foam into a medium or large thread cone, to snug it onto a spool spindle. Slip a roller over seam ripper, pencil, crochet hook, bodkins, etc. to aid in gripping, especially for those with hand health issues. Also helps keep the item from rolling/disappearing.

PAT > Was just musing as I read through the sewing news groups and was wondering

This is fun! I have three tools that I reinvented for sewing. First is a tool given to people after hip surgery. It's about 2 feet long and has suction cups on one end with a squeeze handle on the other. I use it to get spools of thread off the top of my wall racks. Because of this tool I can run the racks all the way to the ceiling. Next are scissors. I'm not sure of the name but they are used in Emergency Rooms to quickly cut clothing off patients. They are very sharp but have a ball on the tip of the bottom blade which prevents anyone from being stuck. It makes them perfect when fitting muslins on my clients, especially children who squirm. And last, I traced sections of my French Curve onto shirt cardboard. When I'm sewing a curve that won't behave I tape the matching piece of cardboard to the sewing machine bed with low-tack painters tape and run the pesky fabric along the edge. Perfect stitch lines every time! It works like a carpenter's "jig".

Liz W

My mother, an emergency operating room nurse, always called them 'bandage scissors'. AK in PA