In a beginner tailor’s toolkit, you often find a seam ripper. It is actually seen as an essential in every tailor’s sewing box, and yet... over the years and with gained experience, my seam ripper and I have had a few mishaps and heated exchanges... holes created in a seam, pulling threads from the fabric, going through the buttonhole... in other words, I have sometimes been disappointed by its use.

So I reconsidered my position and looked for alternatives to meet my sewing needs while avoiding seam ripper accidents, and I found my answer in using embroidery scissors, which have many more uses than the seam ripper.

Before explaining how to unpick your seams with embroidery scissors or a seam ripper, let’s define these two tools in the tailor’s kit.

1. The seam ripper is a small tool whose handle is usually plastic (sometimes wood) topped with a sharp hook/blade that allows you to unpick a seam. The blade is really sharp, so you need to be careful with it to avoid cutting yourself or stabbing the blade into your finger.

2. Embroidery scissors are small scissors with thin, very pointed blades. In sewing, this pair of scissors can be used to unpick a seam but also to precisely notch your fabric to make marks or precise seams (e.g., notching a capucin or a V neckline...). Quality embroidery scissors should be small with very fine, sharp blades. There are many models; the most well-known is the stork-shaped one.

I couldn’t resist offering you some in my shop. These lovely scissors, made in Italy, meet the quality criteria I set for myself and come in gold and silver versions. I really like the detail on the handle that gives them a little touch of originality.

Let’s get down to business: how to unpick a seam with embroidery scissors?
Here is an easy and quick method to unpick a seam

1. Cut the backstitches

• Slide the tip of one blade of your scissors under the first backstitch
• Cut the thread at this spot.
• Do the same for all backstitches, at the beginning and end of the seam.

2. Cut the seam stitches

• After cutting the backstitches, count about 3 to 5 stitches beyond them.
• The tighter the seam or the smaller the stitches, the more frequently you should cut—that is, every 3 stitches.
• The looser the seam or the larger the stitches, the more you can space out the cuts—that is, every 5 stitches.

3. Undo the seam

• Separate the two pieces of fabric sewn together: gently pull on the fabric
• If the stitches resist, cut a few more stitches where they resist.
• Remove the bottom thread, which hasn’t been cut and comes out on its own by gently pulling on it.

Now for the method with the seam ripper!
1. Free the seam

• Separate the two pieces of fabric sewn together so that no fabric lies under the seam.
• If needed, press your seams with an iron to open them up.

2. Cut the stitches

• Lay the fabric flat on a table, place the seam ripper where the top and bottom threads form the stitch.
• Slide the seam ripper blade forward so that the notch (the sharp side) cuts the threads.
• Proceed slowly, making sure you have a stable position to avoid slipping and accidentally cutting the fabric.

3. Remove the threads

• Remove the cut thread ends by hand.

The risk with the second method is going through the fabric and making holes or tears. That has happened to me before. Since then, I use the scissors method, which also has the advantage of not having to pick up all the little thread bits by hand—it’s much faster overall.

I hope this information has helped you see things more clearly, try both methods, and find out which one suits you best.