Your best and your worst friend. 

You know it, you love it, and any time it comes out you want to throw it at the wall. 

Today is all about the seam ripper! 

For those who haven’t yet developed a love/hate relationship with the seam ripper, know that there is still time. 

So if you are just learning about this tool, and want to know if it’s really worth your money, this article will be your go to on what it is, why you need one, how to use one, and lots lots more. 

So lets get started, turns out we have a lot of ground to cover…

What is a seam ripper

Although the name does give a bit of a hint, a seam ripper quite literally rips the stitches that you’ve sewn. 

What is a seam ripper used for?

If you are still early in your quilting (or sewing) career you may be asking yourself, “why would I ever want a tool that destroys my hard work?!”

And with that one question you are starting to understand the love/hate relationship I was mentioning earlier. 

Seam rippers exist for when you make a mistake and need to take out a stitch, redo a seam or a block, or sometimes much more. 

Here are a few common reasons you might want to use a seam ripper:

• The wrong fabric color was used
• The wrong size quilt block piece was used
• The piece got damaged for some reason and needs to be replaced
• The sewing machine made a rats nest of thread on the underside of your block
• A block or quilt piece was rotated incorrectly during assembly
• You just didn’t like your chosen quilting motif after starting and want to do something else entirely.

Almost every one of these situations are quilter/sewer error and depending on how determined you are to correct the issue, you might spend HOURS pulling out those teeny tiny stitches. 

The only case where you might spend that much time getting to know your seam ripper is when you start machine quilting and decide to rip it out for some reason, so don’t feel like you should avoid using it to correct smaller mistakes like a rotated block. 

In any case, there WILL be times when you want to rip a seam, especially if it is only a quick task, so having a tool handy that’s designed to make it a quick process is a necessity. 

Why should you use a seam ripper to cut a seam instead of scissors?

In a word: Efficiency.

In a pinch, you can definitely seam rip using a pair of small embroidery scissors, however if you are doing a larger job, or ripping often, a seam ripper is designed much more appropriately for the task. 

Using the fork design of the seam ripper you can easily glide through a seam making quick work of the stitches where a pair of scissors are much more bulky and likely to catch fabric as well as stitches. 

Using scissors you are at a higher risk for actually cutting holes in your fabric or block. Since you often want to simply rotate, or resew the same seam using the same piece of fabric, reducing the change of making holes accidentally is ideal.

While scissors can certainly get the job done, you will need much more attention to detail and slow down significantly to ensure you don’t cause extra damage in the process.

Although you can still potentially cause holes and other damage with a seam ripper, your risk is much lower and your accuracy at cutting the stitches at a faster rate is much higher. 

Shop my favorite seam ripper on Amazon here.

Characteristics of a seam ripper

A seam ripper is actually quite a simple tool when you break it down. It its simplest form, it’s a small blade with a handle, with no moving parts. 

While there are a couple of different types out there, the vast majority have a “U” shape metal tip to them and simply extend to a handle for easy holding. This “U” shape is often called a fork. 

Typically one side of the fork is a bit longer than the other for ease of slipping underneath the stitches, and the other will have a colored plastic ball on the end. 

The bend of the fork is sharpened so it can cut like a blade to cut the stitches easily and quickly. 

Those few features can be found on most seam rippers, however you may find a few extras here and there depending on the type that you get. 

Other optional characteristics you may find that are not essential to the function of the seam ripper may include:

• Ergonomic handles
• Fashion handles
• Magnifiers
• Small LED lights 
• Plastic caps to avoid catching fingers, clothes, or other objects between uses

There are tons of different features you might want to add on for fun or for practicality’s sake, but as long as it rips stitches, that’s really all you need. 

A basic seam ripper is one of the few essential items you need to get started when sewing or quilting. 

If you are looking for a comprehensive list of the minimum supplies you need to get started, you can find a full list here!

What classification is a seam ripper?

In the sewing industry, tools can be classified based on the type of function they perform. 

The five classifications are:

1. Measuring
2. Cutting 
3. Marking
4. Stitching
5. Pressing

A seam ripper is classified as a cutting tool in the sewing and quilting world. The cutting classification holds any tool that contains a blade, whether it is a pair of scissors, rotary cutter, or a seam ripper. 

An argument could be made to place it into the stitching classification as it is generally only used when stitching, however I’ll leave it up to you to decide 🙂

Types of seam rippers

There are three major types of seam rippers available on the market, I’ve listed them in order of popularity:

1. Fork
2. Surgical Steel Scalpel
3. Electric 

The style with the fork end is by far the most popular and widely available style. It also has the most amount of available extra features available. 

Coming in second is a heavier duty style that looks similarly to a surgical scalpel. It has an exposed blade at the end so it may be more prone to fabric damage if you are not used to using it. 

This version is a favorite among those who sew at a professional frequency – every day, 8 hours a day. 

The fork style can have a tendency to break when used in such a heavy duty application so the surgical steel is great for those who find they break seam rippers frequently. 

For the average quilting or sewing hobbiest, the fork style is more than enough, however you may find that you want to upgrade or keep both available for different applications. 

The last style, the electric seam ripper, seems to be newer to the market.

If you really despise stitch ripping this might be a good option, however they aren’t exactly widely available so be sure to do your research on them before purchasing to make sure it is exactly what you are looking for. 

How to use a seam ripper

There are two ways you can rip seams with a seam ripper:

• Break individual stitches
• Rip and entire seam

Break Individual Stitches

Gently push the longer end of the fork perpendicular to the seam underneath the individual stitches until the thread slides all the way to the bend of the fork and breaks. 

Repeat the process 4-5 stitches away. 

Once you have made it the full length of the section to rip, gently pry apart the two layers of fabric. The stitches in-between the broken ones should slip on their own. 

Clean up the remaining loose threads and resew. 

Rip the entire seam 

Flip the seam ripper so the plastic ball the facing the ground. 

Slip the fork of the seam ripper between the layers of fabric and gently slide it between the fabric pieces to rip every stitch along the full length of the seam. 

Clean up any remaining loose threads and resew. 

How to care for a seam ripper

Seam ripper are fortunately very low maintenance tools and have minimal care requirements. 

With no moving parts, proper storage is the bulk of the care requirements for this tool. 

1. Use the plastic cap to cover the blade when not it use. If you have lost the cap, store it in a small container, or drawer where you (or someone else in your household) will not accidentally cut themselves on it. 
2. Periodically clean the metal portion of it with rubbing alcohol or some other cleaning agent as build up occurs. This could happen from glue, basting spray, interfacing, or other stickier substances you might use during sewing. 

Other than that, there isn’t much else to maintaining a seam ripper, they are about as easy as it gets! 

What happens when a seam ripper gets dull? Can you sharpen a seam ripper?

Over time it will be natural for your seam ripper to slowly dull with use. 

As seam rippers are one of the cheaper tools required for quilting and sewing, most quilters will opt to simply toss it out and upgrade to a new one. 

Since the blade is so small, I personally tend to opt for the replacement, so I have never actually attempted to sharpen a seam ripper. 

I did go out and do some research on how you might be able to go about sharpening a seam ripper if you ever wanted to try.

Disclaimer: I have never attempted to sharped a seam ripper so I can not personally vouch for either of these two methods or their effectiveness. 

1. Using steal wool
2. Using a bead reamer

While most people have steal wool handy at home, a bead reamer is a second option that might be easier to handle. 

I had never heard of a bead reamer prior to doing this little research so just incase you don’t dabble in jewelry making or other bead crafts, a bead reamer is a tool used to file burrs from the inside of a bead hole. 

The reamer files the edges of the inside of the bead to make threading easier so the cord or wire can slide through without catching. 

In the case of attempting to sharpen a seam ripper, you can essentially using a bead reamer as a metal file to sharpen the seam ripper, similar to the way you might sharpen a knife. 

This is not my preferred method of handling seam ripper’s going dull and I have not personally tried either method so take these methods with a grain of salt

But if I ever needed to sharpen a seam ripper, I would start with these methods to see if they helped.

You can find bead reamers on Amazon here.

Other Common Seam Ripper FAQs

How do you seam rip without ripping fabric

Carefully haha. 

Here are few tips for ripping seams without ripping fabric at the same time:

• Take it slow, if you notice you’ve puncture the fabric with the tip of the fork, simply back it out before moving forward. As long as you don’t push it down to the blade at the U-bend you’ll be okay. 
• Gently pry back the fabric layers or the seam allowance as you slip the fork under the stitches. This will give you easier access to the stitches while keeping the fabric out of the way as much as possible.
• Consider looking into options with LED lights or magnifiers on them if you find it hard to see the individual stitches

Shop my favorite seam ripper on Amazon here.

When using a seam ripper do you rip the seam toward you?

No, when using a seam ripper whenever possible, rip the seam away from you. 

Despite being a small tool, a seam ripper is incredibly sharp and has a blade edge. To avoid potential cuts and injury always seam rip away from yourself. 

What is the red dot for on a seam ripper?

A simple answer for such an elusive question:

When ripping a full seam as described earlier, the red ball serves as a mini spacer that helps separate the two pieces of fabric as you run the seam ripper between them. 

The red ball will help keep you from accidentally puncturing the fabrics and ripping through the fabric at the same time. 

While the red ball doesn’t necessarily mean you can stop paying attention as you seam rip, it certainly helps speed up the process for better accuracy. 

Ready to dive in to the world of seam rippers? Shop my go to style on Amazon here.

How to find the perfect seam ripper

Did I mention this was a two part article?

Now that you are incredibly well versed on anything and everything seam rippers, part two of this article is all about the best seam rippers on the market today. 

I’ll be going over many of the different types of seam rippers and features that you can find in todays market to help you pick out the perfect one for your sewing adventures. 

Pretty ones, ergonomic ones, electric ones, we’re covering them all. 

The second part has unfortunately not been released yet, so if you are itching to see what’s on it when it comes out, be sure to get signed up for the Quilting Wemple email updates below.

Twice a month I’ll reach out with updates right to your inbox about whats going on in my little corner of the internet and include details on all new content released so you’ll always stay up to date.

You may even see a free pattern or two! So get signed up, stay in the know, and I’ll see you there!