Hoppo Bumpo (n): A children's game. Played by folding one's arms and hopping on one leg. Aim is to bump opponents, so that they lose their balance. Last person standing wins.


August 03, 2008

This is ... my trade secret



My angled tweezers are my favourite sewing gadget.

They are nice and solid and have just the right amount of spring in them. They make me feel like I have highly-developed fine motor skills, despite knowing all ten of my digits are actually just big fat sausage fingers.

The tweezer's main purpose in life is to help with the joyous process of threading an overlocker. However, they are endlessly useful for all manner of sewing tasks.

They have been used to retrieve a broken needle from the bowels of the sewing machine. To gain purchase on a needle stuck fast in layers of fabric whilst hand-sewing. To remove stray pieces of cotton after unpicking seams. To push out corners when completing turnings. To remove splinters and tweeze eyebrows. Oh, and I must not forget the time they saved the cushion that had all four sides inadvertently sewn up whilst the zipper was still closed.

According to Wikipedia tweezers have been used by craftspeople since pre-dynastic Egypt. In Mesopotamia circa 3000BC they were clearly thinking laterally and also using them to catch lice. Really, is there anything that these all-round beauties can't be used for?

Thank you to Amelia at bollewangenhaptoet for this week's theme and to Angela at Three Buttons who hosts This is ...

12 comments:

  1. It's such a fantastic theme this week because I had no idea that tweezers could be used for so many crafty things (mine only get used for eyebrows, apart from the time when I got them back covered in glue when Mr CP was building a model plane)....

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  2. I love my angled tweezers. Esp for that part about retrieving broken needle bits, after I broke 4 needles in a row. :p

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  3. Well who would have thought tweezers could be so helpful
    Sharon

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  4. Thanks for that - I'll buy a pair. I had an awkward moment with a blunt pencil and a jammed bit of cotton in my sewing machine the other day!

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  5. Mmmmm a very useful tool indeed (although I mostly use them to remove spinters and eye brows! heheh). I haven't thought of using them for plucking out threads after ripping seams - great idea! By the way, there's an award for you on my blog. A nice fun one :)

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  6. ^_^ (I just read your comment!) Hooray!! Someone else who 'gets it' when it comes to these magical things!! They are SO good!!

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  7. You're the second person that I've read tonight that has raved about their tweezers for sewing, I'd never thought of using them. Great trade secret!

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  8. Go the tweezers!! Thanks for sharing your great idea!

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  9. Oh yes, they are very handy, aren't they! I use them to pull elastic through the slots in the little baby shoes I make. Very handy!

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  10. I love my angled tweezers, too. Mostly because they're the link between my being able to USE my overlocker and NOT being able to use it (it's of the constantly-breaking-threads-variety ... an antique that you can't get parts for, but I love it... that's another story). But there are ALWAYS those jobs for which the angled tweezers are THE ONLY TOOL... those "things caught in awkward places" jobs are where they shine the brightest!!

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  11. yay for kick ass tweezers, I am the owner of a priceless pair aswell.

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