Help! Trying to remove tiny stitches
 

Hope someone on here will have some suggestions for removing teeny tiny, itty bitty stitches. I was going along just fine stitching in the ditch with my walking foot on my grandson's quilt. Got to the end, flipped it around and started sewing the other way. I was about halfway done before I noticed that the previous seam looked all puckered. Long story short, something happened that made the stitches tiny, tiny. Have tried using my seam ripper, but can't really even get the point under them and feel like I am causing damage to the fabric. Got out my magnifier and ried using a straight pin, no luck. Oh, and the really difficult part - it's black thread on black fabric :mad:.

Any suggestions will be deeply appreciated.

Gram2five- I'm sorry to hear this! Just had to do a similar thing but mine was tiny FMQ stitches, almost white on white, though. For me black would be even harder. I do have a very fine pointed seam ripper, called "seam-fix" so I was able to pick some of the threads. Then, near the end where some of the tiniest stitches were, I thought of using my very sharp pointed eyebrow tweezers to help get ahold of the threads. That really helped a lot. I know what you mean about fabric damage. I was worried, too, but in the end it was OK. Good luck.

No suggestions here either -- I just had to take out tiny quilting stitches also -- red thread on red fabric. It took two days and a lot of patience but finally got it done then sent it to the quilter. Just got that one back and it turned out beautiful! Good luck!

Tiny stitches are the worst. I'm sure you already know this, but you only need to "rip" every 3rd one or so & then should be able to pull out from the opposite side (e.g., if you "snip" with your seam ripper every 3rd stitch on the front, you should be able to just pull the loosened thread on the back & the others will pop out. Still not fun. We've all been there & wished there was some magical tool to undo those tiny things.

I think I have a pair of those sharp tweezers around here somewhere, I'll give them a try.
Part of the problem is that I did a really great job stitching in the ditch! So good that it's hard to tell which threads are holding the seam together and which ones are my topstitching.

I would also try and separate the layers. I would try and clip the stitches between the backing and the batting. BTW, if your stitch length changed, make sure the quilt is not catching on something. Also check that your walking foot is still firmly attached and the arm didn't slip from where it's supposed to be.

I use the tiny rotary cutter to take out tiny stitches and big ones too. Once I can get to where the layers can be separated a bit and I can see the stitches holding the layers together, I pull up the top layer and start cutting with the rotary cutter little by little while continuing to pull up on the top layer and holding down the bottom one. Does that make any sense whatsoever? I have become a master at this technique .... which is a sad statement about my sewing/quilting. Good luck and take your time.

Separating might get you started. Leah Day has a good tutorial on taking out tiny tight stitches. lf l can find it again, l'll post the link.

Thank you all so much. I never thought of trying to separating the layers. Will give that a try. I'm afraid I will be at this for days, but I am so pleased with the way the top came out, it will be worth it. Still can't figure out what went wrong, but lesson learned. Pay attention!