Wednesday, March 25, 2009

A warning for those who sew

Our "resident expert" on the Sense & Sensibility sewing forum posted this, and I wanted to pass this along here, as I know the majority of you sew:

Could I please recommend that everyone who tears fabric for clothes/costume, rather than cutting it, buys AND USES a face mask from a pharmacy. My incurable, though treatable, lung problem could be caused by inhaling fibres from tearing calico/muslin for petticoats, and silks and cottons. I would hate anyone to go the same medical route as me, and many of you are a lot younger than I was when I started working with costumes. This also goes for people who work with fibre like knitting, spinning and weaving.

7 comments:

Sarah said...

I saw this too. Thanks for posting it here! I tear almost everything that is tearable, so I need to get a face mask *and* remember to use it!

Unknown said...

That's so scary! I don't tear my fabric but know people who do. Thanks for posting this!

Cheri said...

Do you Sarah? I never heard of tearing fabric until I saw a friend do it. It supposedly saves time, (is that right?) but I never have been brave enough to do it myself.

Sarah said...

Yes, I don't know that it really saves that much time, unless you are cutting out/tearing out large quantities of something (like petticoats or the panels for a victorian gown) but at least most importantly for me, it keeps everything perfectly on grain. I don't do it with very fine, lightweight fabrics (like voile or lawn) but the standard cotton fabrics tear well, as do some wools. I haven't used it on silk though. I was too scared to try! :)

Anonymous said...

That's scary!

LeneJ said...

I never thought of that!! Thank you for posting this and making us aware!

Ruth said...

Wow, scary! I use to tear fabric a lot but it seemed to weaken the edges. I'm so glad you let us know, though!