Monday, February 1, 2010

Who bent my scissors? Pelican Applique are bent for a purpose

3:43 PM |

Posted by Ellen Anne Eddy |

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Probably the oddest tool I bring out of my bag at a class are my pelican scissors. These are not little scissors with pelicans on the handle( although I've seen something awfully close to that and it was cute.) These are scissors that are bent oddly and have a bill.

These are my warhorse scissors. They were originally made for rug workers. The bill in was made flat so you could cut the loops of the rug evenly. The bend makes the blade slip right along the edge where you're cutting.

What I love these scissors for is appliqué. You can cut directly on the line, as close as you need. I use them for almost everything. They're perfect for cutting shapes, cut-away and mole` appliqué and for those sad moments when you need to cut mats out of your cat's fur. Momo thinks it's a dreadful idea, but then again, he doesn't want to be brushed either.

Joking aside, and the cat trim is not a joke, they're perfect for cutting an edge you need to stitch around. The closer you can cut the edge, the tighter and neater your stitched edging around it will be.

Do I have a separate pair for paper? That would assume I was organized enough to find two pairs of scissors at the same time. I'm afraid that doesn't happen.I just buy a bunch of them and use them until something awful happens to them.

Sadly, they do not come in a left-handed version. It is unfair, and I apologize.

Gingher makes the best version of these and they're worthy. You can sharpen them on a stone, if they get dull. Don't drop them, though. They can spring out of alignment, and that's the end of that.

Amazon has them available. They're listed as

Gingher G-6R 6-Inch Knife-Edge Appliqué Scissors

But it's always best to buy from your local sewing store if you can. You're local store is a treasure that deserves your support and patronage.

Wrapping it up:Pelican appliqué scissors are perfect for just that, cutting the best appliqué edge.

3 comments:

norma said...: Thanks again for a great blog entry. It looks like I should get a pair of those!; February 1, 2010 at 4:51 PM
Suzanne Sanger said...: Can you give us a link to these scissors? Or at least a photo of the scissors without fabric covering up most of them? I've tried searching for pelican applique scissors in google and also both pelican and applique in the gingher website and have come up dry. Are they the same as stork scissors? Where do you buy them? Is there a product number?; February 1, 2010 at 7:16 PM
Suzanne Sanger said...: Thanks for the photo!; February 2, 2010 at 7:52 AM