Having retired recently, I was ready to upgrade my sewing area! Although some things haven't changed much in the last 40 or 50 years, I'm finding that there are very cool new gadgets for people who can locate them. After spending hours studying sewing supply catalogs, shopping online, and traipsing through fabric stores, I've got a workspace piled high with tools, but here are just three of the dozen or so accessories that I've decided a sewer cannot live without:
- THE MUST-HAVE STAND: Fons & Porter makes a small red weighted tabletop stand with slots for 3-position hands-free ripping. I bought mine from Joann's but have seen them advertised online as well.
Instead of using the rippers included with the stand, I store my next favorite gadget right in the top slot where it never falls down, gets lost, or pokes somebody it shouldn't. - THE MUST-HAVE SCISSORS: Especially if you do machine embroidery, Westcott's small titanium curved-tip embroidery scissors (#55062 available at WalMart) is indispensable and must live in the top slot of my little red stand in place of the ripper shown above.
Although the three seam rippers that came with the stand are vintage in design, they are differently sized with clean white handles, so I leave my favorite size in the bottom slot, but my next favorite lives in the middle slot. - THE MUST-HAVE SEAM RIPPER: These are really hard to find, so don't make the mistake I did of ordering only one to try them out--go ahead and get a handful: 3 3/8" Surgical Steel Seam Ripper. The only place I've been able to find these so far is Clotilde's, but they are only $3.98 each and worth their weight in platinum. They have a convenient slot in the handle in case you want to hang them with a ribbon.
Once you have one of these little red accessory stands in your sewing area, you'll wonder how you ever did without it, and soon you'll need another one to store a stiletto (you know, the handy thing that holds fabric under the presser foot when you don't want to run over a pin) or whatever other favorites you need to keep at hand.
Now if I could only find the perfect stand for my Black & Decker Cordless Scissors! Any suggestions?
