Pulling a Thread
Posted on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 7:35 pmSkill Level: Beginner
Niceness: Pretty
Pros: Straight Every Time
Cons: Takes Time, Tedious
Best For: Shifty Fabric, Thinner Fabric
PDF Sometimes, fabrics don’t play nice. Like, you have a wonderfully soft, light weight, breathable, utterly perfect fabric you want to use for a chemise, or you found the perfect silk chiffon for a veil, and it’s all wonderful-roses-happy-puppies-GLORIOUS… Until you try to cut it, and shifts all over the blasted place and you can’t get a straight line. Oh, bother… Time to pull a thread. I find this the most tediously annoying process in the entire history of ever*, but there are times when it is the only way you’re going to cut a straight line.
Sample:
Pulling a thread allows you to cut a perfectly straight line, even on the shiftiest of fabrics.
Process:
The easiest way to start is to locate a pokey thread that you can grab. If there are no grab-able threads, you'll need to pick one out with a pin until you have enough to hold on to.
Grab the thread...
...and pull.
It sounds so easy, doesn’t it? Go ahead, try it. Nine times out of ten, the silly thread breaks somewhere in the middle. Bother, again. Hunt it down, pick it out with a pin until you can grab it, and repeat.
Once the thread is pulled, you can see a line in the fabric where the thread was.
Cut carefully along this line. This part of the process is also tedious, yet annoying.
Eventually, you have a perfectly straight cut that follows the grain of the fabric.
If you’re wondering what the big deal with cutting straight is, you’re probably not at a point in your sewing where you need this technique. For the record, though, it’s important because it’s much easier to roll a hem if the hem is straight….
*On the whole, I have a very high tolerance for tediously annoying little crafty processes. This one drives me to drink. Funny story: give me two martinis, and pulling threads because an act of zen-like tranquility….
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