Sewing Room Safety Tips

As sewing is a creative activity everyday more and more people join the club, having some Sewing Room Safety Tips will help you to enjoy this activity, and get better results at it.

Accidents can happen anywhere and anytime, and the sewing room is not the exception to the rule.

Sewing Room Safety Tips

As you get more interested in sewing, you’ll be getting more sewing tools, from pins, scissors, irons, rotary cutter and your sewing machine, all of these tools will help you to get better at it, but you need to pay attention to how to handle them or how to storage them to be safe.

You might get a laugh when you hear on the sewing class or workshop about one sewer didn’t remember where she (he) left a needle, and then the husband or one of the children find it on the sofa. That is not fun when it happens.

The other day I was reading some post on Social Media on a sewing group, when a lady asked this question: When you go to the sewing room, you go with shoes on or barefoot?

This is when I thought, I need to write a post about sewing room safety tips.

As a sewer for many years, I’ve been sewing at home and I had also a sewing workshop for a couple of years, and it was easy to see pins and needles on the floor almost everyday.

Today you can also find some stories about sewers who had an accident because a rotary cutter fell from the cutting table and hurt her (his) foot, even while wearing shoes.

So the first tip is: always wear shoes.

Always Close Rotary Cutters

Rotary cutters are one of the modern sewing tools sewers have to make the cutting work faster, but this tool can be dangerous if you don’t pay attention to it as you work with it.

Always be sure the blade is well set and the button that holds it is screw tight.

Change the blade for a new one as soon as you notice that it gives you hard time while cutting. And always keep the blade closed when you don’t use it.

Always keep the rotary cutters far from the reach of children, rotary cutters are made with bright colors that can call the attention to young children and they might get interested to check on them.

Never put some fabrics over the rotary cutters as you work with them, you can easily forget where the rotary is and as you look for it, you can hurt your hands and fingers as you look for it under the fabrics.

Be Safe While Ironing

As you work on a project, you will use the iron more often to open and to flatten the seams, always be sure to keep the iron on an ironing board or table where it is stable, and place it far from the edge.

If you’re a quilter, you will be working on a project with pieces of fabric of all sizes, from some good size and larger, to tiny little pieces of fabric, you’ll be working on chain sewing and you’ll be doing the same while ironing, always be sure to open the pieces of fabric and remove your fingers from the reach of the hot iron.

You can use a wooden stick to keep a small fabric piece while you iron, to keep your fingers always safe.

Always unplug the iron after you finish ironing and place the iron out of reach from children, keep the iron cord on the table where children and pets can’t reach it.

Turn The Power Off

When you’re working on your sewing machine, sometimes you need to replace the needle, change the presser foot or even threading the needle.

I know well enough, as you work on your sewing room, you can be more efficient on everything you do there, and sometimes I do everything on automatic mode.

Beginners and more experienced sewers, we all need to pay attention to safety while sewing. To keep accidents from happening, a good tip is always to turn the power off when you need to do anything on your sewing machine.

An accident can happen as you change the needle, if you keep your foot on the pedal, you might not notice when your foot can press the pedal and your finger can end with the needle in it.

If your part of a sewing or a quilting group on Social Media, you might have seen people showing their fingers hurt because they got a “small accident” while sewing.

I’ve seen this happening even with the most experienced sewers, a few years ago, I had a sewing workshop, and I had to take a couple of the sewers to the doctor to get removed the sewing machine needle from their finger.

Keep Scissors In A Safe Place.

After you finish using your scissors, always put them in a container blades down and high enough far from any children to reach.

Needles and Pins In A Safe Container

No wonder why our grandmothers used the cookie tins to keep the sewing tools in it, they are so hard to open, and most of the children will need to ask for help to get a needle from the tin. This way our grandmothers could keep everything in one place and safe from the reach of children.

Pay Attention To Your Children And Pets

I know many sewers around the globe are young moms with young children at home, as you take your time to work on your sewing machine, young children are curious by nature, they might want to know how the sewing machine works.

The best advice I can give you on this point is to always pay attention where your young children are and what they are doing while you work on the sewing machine.

As a young mother (many years ago), I used to work with my sewing machine as my regular job, I used to have my young sons in the sewing room and as soon as I noticed they were getting close to the sewing room I had to stop working with it.

As my children grew up, I talked to them and I explained to them that was my job, they got used to it and they knew it was unsafe for them to get too close to the sewing machine.

Everything worked well for everyone, and I could keep working on my sewing to make money for my family and my children were proud of me.

Pets are also another important issue to pay attention to, dogs are better behaved in the sewing room and they will be a good company to have.

Cats are a different story in the sewing room, they are curious about everything no matter if they are just a kitty or an old cat, they will be interested to play with the needle as you work with your sewing room.

Cats will be always be interested to play with your tools, just pay attention to them and everything will go fine.

Slow Down And Enjoy The Process

I know, when you work to make something, you might want to see it finished the same day.

It might work right with some projects, but with some other projects you will need not only days, but weeks and even months to finish that projects.

Take your time to work on your project but slow down and enjoy the process.

There will be days when you can work a few hours and there will be days when you won’t work on your project, relax, it will get done.

If you sew as your regular job, every time you get a new order, be wise to give you some extra time, this way if something comes up with your family or with you, you’ll get the extra time to work on that project.

Closing

Sewing is a wonderful activity you’ll enjoy every time, just a few tips about how to keep your sewing room safe for anyone who works in it.

If your children are interested on learning to sew, they will also learn from you these tips to always be safe.

Make of sewing an activity to relax and be creative while you always keep safe at it.

You can read also The Best Sewing Tools 

If you have other tips that will help sewers to be safe as they sew, leave a comment, we all can get safer with it.