The Tale of the Good Scissors

So, we have all heard the cry, yes?
"No!!! Not with the Good Scissors!!!!!"

Good Scissors

Generally from Mum or another female relative, right at the point where you are going to cut out a pretty design from a magazine or old gift card. Scares the living daylights out of you at the time and then you are left wondering what all the fuss is about. After all, scissors are just scissors, right?

Not the Good Scissors

Pinking Shears

And especially when I found my Mum's pinking shears (see photo above). Those pretty zig-zag blades made a lovely edge on my card and my skirt, but that is another story... I was 5 years old and that was the first time that I heard the cry of "Not with the Good Scissors!!!!" and you could hear the capital letters and the exclamation points. Boy was I in trouble, but I wasn't sure why. This is why...

When you are sewing, quilting, embroidering or making other textile crafts, your scissors need to be sharp all the way to the point or they snag, pull or fray the fabric, making it look like it has been chewed by the dog. The blades also need to be straight and smoothly pass each other in order to make an accurate clean cut through the fabric. Paper and card are really tough on scissor blades. The paper may feel smooth when you run your hands over it, but the fibers dull any blade used to cut it, including the blades of your scissors. This is why my Mum had a fit when I used her pinking shears to make the edges of my card pretty. Those poor pinking shears were never the same again. 
 

'Not the Good Scissors' (left), Dressmaking Shears (right)

Let me demonstrate, with a pair of 'Not the Good Scissors', my Dressmaking Shears and some scraps of pure cotton quilting fabric. The 'Not the Good Scissors' were originally very sharp scissors and used for cutting fabric. Then the dreaded happened and they were used for cutting paper. Now they are no longer any good for cutting fabric:

As you can see from the photo, they have cut a little way into the fabric and then where the tips of the scissors were, they have just dented the fabric and not made a cut. I have tried twice to cut this fabric and have a rough, jagged cut and two areas where the fabric is crushed (the lighter lines to the left of the scissor blades). The situation is much different when I cut the same fabric with my Dressmaking Shears:

I have had these Dressmaking Shears for more than 20 years, they are still sharp and cut through the quilting fabric in one neat, smooth action. The cut edge of the fabric is crisp. They have stayed sharp as they have only ever been used to cut fabric, never paper. 

Look at the difference between the two cuts in the fabric. On the left are the cuts made by scissors which have had encounters with paper, on the right are the cuts made by my Dressmaking Shears which have only ever been used on fabric.

In order to make sure that my Dressmaking Shears and the other 'Good Scissors' stay sharp and are only used for textiles, I store them in Scissors Cases, like my hand-made ones in the photo above or this sturdy commercial one in the photo below.

 My friend in Australia was not so lucky. Her favourite pair of Dressmaking Shears were used to cut a heavily beaded fabric. This dulled the blades and also caused the blades to move apart. They no longer cut fabric and she was unable to replace them in Australia. I was able to find a very similar pair of Dressmaking Shears here in the US and bought them for her.

I also designed and made the Sew Crazy Scissors Case so that she has a nice storage case for them. Maybe they won't be used on the wrong fabric this time....