Ripping out seams in dark fabrics

like:

Check Office Depot. I got a magnifying lamp there that works really well for me, and it was under $30. They sometimes have sales, and if you get on their email list, they send you coupons.

I find a seam ripper indispensable -- but I was astounded when I got Usenet access and learned that some people shove it between two layers of fabric, trying to use it as an auto-guided razor blade.

A seam ripper is for isolating and cutting a single thread, which it does very well. (The British name, "stitch unpicker", fits it much better.)

And it's for opening buttonholes, if you don't make enough buttonholes to make it worth your while to give house room to a chisel and end-grain wood block.

It's also a fine-point awl, suitable for such jobs as tucking under an edge that came unfolded when it saw the presser foot coming at it.

Joy Beeson

trisha f wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@i29g2000prf.googlegr oups.com:

i had those. absolute crap! i couldn't see properly near *or* far. i seriously tried to adjust to them but they were just awful. i now have regular glasses & close work glasses. it's so much better. one tip: take whatever kind of handwork you normally do with you to the optometrist. they tend to focus on the ability to read a certain standard type size at X distance, which may not be the focus you need for what you are actually doing. this last trip to my optomotrist i took a box of size 13 seeds beads & a beading needle and told him i needed lenses that allowed me to thread *this* size needle & use at least *this* size bead. i'm very happy with the results, because i can read

Thanks for this suggestion, Lee. I have my appointment with the ophthalmologist at the end of the month and will try this. Emily

Now THAT is a great suggestion!

I love my progressive lenses but they are, indeed, crap when it comes to threading needles, hand quilting and such. Maybe I'll go get some glasses just for that kind of thing.

Trisha in MO