Oh happy scissors, this is thy sheath

I have been on a major sewing crafty kick as of late. The ideas just keep flowing and the projects just keep coming. To celebrate the fact that I have been doing so much sewing I treated myself to a pair of decent pair of sewing shears. The first rule of sewing is you don’t talk about sewing….sorry that was Fight Club. The first rule of sewing is you NEVER use your sewing shears for anything but fabric because it will make them DULL. While I followed that rule I never took great care of my previous shears. They weren’t really great quality to begin with. They came in a multi pack of scissors and so I thought, “Right, the biggest ones will be for sewing.” They never cut terrible well--they had a tendency to chew fabric. So I vowed that these would be different.

 

I invested in a proper pair that came with instructions how to clean the blades and insisted that they be stored in a protective pouch to keep them from being blunted. I’ve been on a bit of an upcycling kick and I found this adorable way to make a scissor sheath out of an old necktie. Look at this lovely tie I bought for £1.

 

Here is the underside.

 

It reminded me of Monet’s water lilies

 

The trouble I had was every time I found a tie with a pattern that I liked and was the correct size for my shears --it turned out to be silk. At Save the Children I had to ask “Are there any ties that *aren’t* made of silk?” The lady was a wee bit confused and said, “But the silk are top of the range!” I explained that the silk industry was a cruel one. Silk worms in their cocoons are thrown into boiling water whilst still alive and then they die so the silk they have been spinning can be harvested. I don’t want to have anything to do with things that cause pain and suffering so I wanted a polyester tie. I think she was a bit shocked by it all. Most people don’t know about how cruel silk production methods are. She asked me a sincere question in response to my statement about not wanting to do anything that caused pain. She asked, “But you eat meat and animals died for that, right?” To which I was pleased to respond:

Actually, no I don’t. I don’t consume anything that has a mother. I don’t consume anything that comes from animals because of the way that animals are treated. Animals are not vending machines--they were not created to give up parts of themselves (eggs), their children, (milk production) and their lives (meat) just for us to be able to eat. Animals are my friends and I don’t eat my friends.    

So she kindly directed me to the polyester ties. And that’s how I found the lovely one pictured above. My first thought when I saw this gorgeous necktie in a charity shop was Oh happy scissors, this is thy sheath! which is a shameless paraphrase from Romeo and Juliet. Then I looked at the label and it said FOLKSPEARE which sounded a bit like Shakespeare and I felt like it was destiny. Lastly, I saw that it was made in England which practically guaranteed that it wasn’t produced in a sweatshop. That made me ridiculously happy because I care about human rights as much as I do animal rights.

All you do is measure how deep your scissors slide in and then cut below that. Turn the cut edges inside and press with an iron and then sew the bottom end shut. Then add some decorative buttons on if you want. I did because I wanted to give some extra support to the front seam of the tie which was only tacked together. Plus it made it purdy. Everything is nicer with decorative buttons. FACT.  That’s it! You could even do it all by hand if you don’t have a sewing machine.

Here it is without the shears.

 

 Here it is with my new sewing scissors safely tucked inside.

It is clever and practical and upcycled from an old tie. Plus it is darned cute, if I do say so myself.
Now go and make one yourself!