How To Unpick A Seam

So you messed up. Maybe the fabric moved or you stitched it inside out only to realise to your horror that you joined the fabric the wrong way up. We've all been there! So how do you unpick those teeny machine stitches? The easiest way is with a seam ripper. It's tiny prong slides easily behind the stitch, and a with a gently push against the stitch, it cuts it. You can use scissors but it's a lot more fiddly, and fabrics like PUL or satin which are less forgiving and leave marks where your stitches were (sometimes called bruising the fabric) will be even more obvious if you've distorted the fabric shape trying to get scissor tips in. You don't need cut every single stitch. I tend cut about every third or fourth stitch all the way along the seam i need to redo.

I then gently open the seam up like this:

If any stitches are more stuck than others you can simply slide the seam ripper (or scissors) between the layers of fabric and the stitch to gently break the residual stitch. Be very very careful here that you don't cut the fabric too.

Once opened up, simply remove the spare thread. Be aware though that if you have removed a centre section in your seams that you have loose stitches at the end from where you have removed a section, so you need to stitch over the top of them to secure them fully.

We hope you enjoy our tutorials and love hearing what you think so please leave us a comment or send me an email to linda@sewingbeefabrics.co.uk