If you’ve got a sewing machine, chances are your favourite tool will be your unpicker or seam ripper. For the uninitiated, these sharp little gems are fine blades that slice along a stitch on a garment – perfect for taking off clothes labels neatly. It wasn’t until a conversation about sewing started up in the Starts at Sixty office, that we discovered we’ve been using our unpickers the wrong way this whole time!

Here’s what we learnt: that small ball on one of the prongs? That’s to allow the unpicker to be slid along a garment in one swipe – no more fussing over individual stitches! Here’s a video to help explain.

Have you ever wondered what that little ball is for on your seam ripper?

I’ve been sewing all my life and just found out a few years ago! I had been doing it wrong all this time.

I’ve even taken sewing lessons and no one ever explained it. I just thought it had no purpose…..but it does!

So I thought you might want to know, too!

Put the ball under the seam you want to rip out.

The ball lets you glide the seam ripper through the seam as the edge cuts the seam. This makes ripping out a seam very easy and very quick!