Originally Posted by
pdriggs
I think those of use who started out sewing garments--say 50 years ago!--were taught about the red ball in home ec. I see a lot of quilters who have never sewn garments. Those long seams in a garment would be a bear without the ball!
Phyllis
I had to watch the video without sound, but got the gist of the tutorial since I have ripped like this for decades. I, too, learned this from home ec class in high school over 50 years ago.
Although this is a great way to rip seams, be careful, over the years I have had a couple accidents doing this method, such as, if you are ripping a long seam and are going the speed of light zipping right along, if you get too many threads (cut threads) caught in the seam ripper, the seam ripper can "jump" and you can cut into the seam. I've done this twice in my lifetime.
One thing that I did notice is that she folded the seam open before she started ripping, this may help with that problem, as I always rippied with the seam folded flat.
Also, I have one of those brass seam rippers, I purchased it about a decade ago when they were much cheaper than they are now and it works like any other seam ripper. I usually use a Clover or Fons & Porter seam ripper and they work great with this method. One of the advantages with the Fons and Porter seam ripper is that you can use the red end of the ripper like an eraser and it will help pull the extra threads that are left in the seam after ripping.