Friday, January 14, 2011

A Scissor Happy Lefty!

I'm left-handed which means scissors have always been a pain in my backside!  If I try to use regular scissors it just mangles whatever I'm cutting.  If I try so called "right or left" scissors (which are right-hand with a symmetrical handle) I have to contort my head and put my work at a weird angle in order to see where I'm cutting.  This is because the blade actually blocks your cutting line.  However being that I've never had true left-hand scissors before I didn't realize how awkward it all was, I just thought I was a crappy cutter!

Well after reading many sewing blogs where Gingher scissors were touted I decided to look into them.  After stewing about spending some extra cash on them I decided to purchase their True Left-Hand Dressmaking Shears. These have the blades switched so the cutting line is visible to a lefty.


I was excited to open my box and see these beauties.  They are beautiful and heavier than my other pair.  However at first I couldn't cut with them!  I was so confused and upset that they didn't help at all, but I kept trying to cut and suddenly I realized something.  I was using them just like they were "right or left" scissors and that I needed to look at the side of the scissors, not over the top.  Eureka!!! 

I'm still not the greatest at cutting, but at least now I can see!  Now if only I had paper cutting, and pinking shears that were left-handed I would be all set.

2 comments:

  1. I'm a fellow lefty!! I have a supposedly left-handed pair of shears, but I still hate cutting. I also have an "ambidextrous" pair. I'll have to look at both of them more carefully later to see if I still have that problem you did. If so, it'll be nice to blame it on the scissors instead of on my lack of skills! (Honestly, if I can I prefer to just use a rotary cutter because of this lefty vs. righty nonsense...)

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  2. I know my scissor skills are still pretty weak. I'll blame that on learning to cut using righty scissors. :)
    Gingher actually makes a lefty rotary cutter but I don't know what the difference is from the righty version.

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