You mean your friend didn't show you the right way? Surely she must know, since she knows that most of us don't know it. So is she keeping it secret, like her secret recipe? LOL (For me, whatever works, and sometimes it ain't pretty.)

Great Video! Like everyone else I didn't realize there was a right or wrong way. Any way is great as long as the offending stitches are gone!

You mean your friend didn't show you the right way? Surely she must know, since she knows that most of us don't know it. So is she keeping it secret, like her secret recipe? LOL (For me, whatever works, and sometimes it ain't pretty.)[/quote]

Oh gee, when my friend said that, I didn't have the heart to say" oh, I didn't know there was a right or wrong way". So I thought I would ask my quilter friends here :)

Me, too, only I use the thread nippers I had to buy when I worked at a sewing factory.

I've never seen it done this way, but it looks so much easier and quicker than all the other ways I've tried. It makes me want to make a mistake just so I can do this. Thanks for posting this, mythreesuns! I'm also looking forward to everyone else's responses to how they rip seams.

For long seams, I use the foot of my sewing machine to hold one end of the seam, then hold the end toward me with my left hand. My right hand pushes the ripper toward the machine. Because the fabric is held tight, you can just zip through the seam quickly. For smaller pieces, I would rip them out like in the video.

Oh dear god we are triplets!!!!

I didn't know that was a certain way either, although after watching the video - I realized 90 percent of the time I do use it that way -just because you don't rip your fabric and it makes you feel good when you do long sections all at once on the second step.

I have a story to tell - At a recent retreat I had to use my ripper several times and after awhile I would just announce that I had another date with "Jack", at first it took people a while to ask me what I meant, who was Jack? "Jack the Ripper" - so by the end of the retreat the ladies in my corner of the room had named all their rippers different names -- some based on their male or female colors and you would hear announcements everytime they had a date with Antonio (he was classy), George(plain and reliable) or Jacques (cause he was lavender) etc. It added fun to our retreat.

I was taught to rip out every few stitches also. That way the material won't stretch.

Years ago, we were taught to "rip" every 3rd stitch all along the offending seam. Then pull the 2 pieces of fabric apart. The seam just disentigrates, but you are left with all those lovely micro-pieces of thread.