We have all heard it said, “Lefties are so creative!” We have also seen the images in the self-help aisle, a picture of a brain with color and paint exploding from the right side (the side in control for the left-handed) while the left side of the brain sits gray and dull. In my eight years of teaching sewing, I personally haven’t found a proportionally higher rate of creativity among my left-handed tribe and suspect these proclamations are little more than an attempt to make up for the years when being left-handed was Exhibit A for ‘most probably a witch’. Yet, given the reputation for creativity among the left-handed you would think the wildly creative world of sewing would be filled with leftie-friendly tools. Alas, it is not. I was painfully reminded of this recently when I splurged and bought a fancy new iron. I quickly discovered that the iron’s special ability to release tiny holding feet from the soleplate when you release your hand mean that if I use my left hand and press the steam button at the same time the tiny feet will sporadically release making ironing impossible. The advice I got from a fellow sewist with the same problem was, “train yourself to work around it.”
Despite the proliferation of messages about lefties and creativity and the inherent creativity in the act of sewing, sewing equipment itself is still (mostly) built for the right-handed. So much so that when I was asked how I deal with being left-handed and sewing I was speechless. I was a fish being asked to describe water.
My own left-handedness came as a surprise to my family and while inquiring “where did THIS come from?” it came out that my grandfather was left-handed but the school had forced it out of him at a young age. No one ever explained exactly what that meant but it sounded awful. My own grandma blandly implied his left-handedness remained a very unattractive part of his personality. My sweet grandfather replied with a meek shrug to the whole conversation. I know that meek shrug: it is Midwest-speak for a resigned, “What can you do?”
Indeed, just as with the iron re-training, this is the general approach I and my southpaw comrades take to life as left-handed sewists. What can you do? Not a lot. I mean, what you do is adapt. After thinking about it for a while, asking a few friends, and doing a bit of research I came up with a few thoughts.
Some things just don’t work and it’s ok:
I struggled for the longest time to get my automatic threader to work. After trying again and again, I declared that automatic threaders are useless! Only recently did I realize that automatic threaders are operated by the left-hand and therefore rely on the right hand to grasp and guide the thread. Well, with a right hand unable to work fine motor skills, the use of the automatic threader was impossible, certainly for me. This, of course, doesn’t make them useless for everyone. There was, after all, no need for the drama. I just don’t use my automatic threader.
Additionally, I cannot operate a rotary cutter with my right hand. When I am teaching my class on how to make espadrille shoe, I have to alter my language and instruct students to use their non-dominant hand to hold down the fabric and pattern and their dominant hand to cut. This helps eliminate any confusion about how to properly cut for those uninitiated with rotary cutters.
Thankfully, I am ambidexterous enough to use right-handed scissors for cutting fabric. Though, I have heard from a number of people who are so left-handed they need to buy special left-handed fabric scissors and the word is they are more expensive and hard to find. That sounds like a left-handed person’s tax and I say boo to that!
Some things are better for lefties!
You know how left-handed baseball players are the cream of the crop? Some sewing implements have hidden and accidental advantages as well.
For example, I recently learned that during the industrial revolution, when the sewing machine was invented, it operated via hand crank. Because it took great strength to operate the hand crank, it was placed on the right-hand side where most of the population was strongest. Of course, over time sewing machines moved to a foot pedal operating system but kept the machine the same. Therefore, the modern sewing machine maintains a left-sided orientation even though the flywheel no longer needs a good crank.
While discussing all of this with another sewing instructor on Instagram, she described how she uses being a leftie to help her teach. When she stands directly in front of her right-handed students and sews, she is a perfect mirror for what they need to do. This helped me realize that I have inadvertently done this as well. Who knew?!
Most of us conform and adapt to a right-handed world
At its heart, sewing is the act of manipulating fabric with a needle and thread and that means listening to your body’s comfort. Yes, I hold my clear ruler with my right hand so my more skilled left hand can do the cutting. When I am making espadrilles, as is often the case these days, I have to hold the shoe in my right hand so that I can hand-stitch with my left hand. It’s the opposite of how I saw it illustrated on-line when I was learning but, without realizing it I flipped the script in my head. I adapted and made it work for what is comfortable for me.
I have, for example, mastered the weirdness of my new iron and can honestly say that I now love it. I’ve even learned how to switch it from one hand the other without triggering the release of the tiny holder feet. Score!
Thankfully, sewing is such a tactile and intuitive process that it’s relatively easy to make adaptations work for the left-handers among us. In fact, I love being a left-handed sewist. I’m part of the 10% of the population that might just be a witch after all. If that turns out to be the case, I will be well prepared to make my costume.
Melissa Quaal is a blogger at A HAPPY STITCH, a garment sewer, instructor and the creator of The Espadrilles Kit. She sells her all-in-one kits for making espadrille shoes on Etsy and loves inspiring people all over the world to make their own footwear to wear with their fabulously handmade clothes.
Thank you for this article. I think left handed people are more creative because they have had to adapt to using right handed tools. I can do much more with my right hand than most right handers can do with their left hand. Right handers do not have to use their non dominant hand in order to survive. We do. There were no readily available left handed scissors when I grew up so I was forced to use right handed ones. After so many years, I still cut right handed – left handed scissors are difficult for me now. Lol! On the plus side I can rotary cut with both hands – which is a time saver when quilting. I love being a leftie, honestly. I instantly connect with other lefties. Right handed people do not have that recognition of each other.
I always notice the lefties 🙂 And I cannot use left-handed scissors for any amount of money – though I write with my left hand and have left-handed dominance in some other ways. I agree that we have to adapt, which encourages creativity. But I’d love to think that left-handed people actually are more creative – especially when I’m working on something that is not going well!
you are so spot on. I’m so severely right-handed that I can’t dribble a ball with my left hand, nor use a rotary cutter in my left hand. You just *know* those rotating cutting mats were made for righties who can’t cope, like me! 😀 One of my kids is still fully ambidextrous even into her teens, although she did start leaning more right as she was forced to sort of choose in school. I’m so (happily) jealous of her ability to switch.
My right-handed mum says that playing tennis with my left-handed dad was nightmare – he was ambidextrous, so never had to play a back-hand shot. Instead he just swapped the racquet to his other hand, and lobbed the ball straight back at her!
HAHAHA I feel her pain! I have my cutting table set up so that I can pivot around it. I’m such a slave to my right hand.
I like your adaptation theory. I can buy that!
Thank you for this post! Reading through this (and other comtributions about the topic that we’ve got coming up on future posts) really got me thinking! I asked my left-handed husband yesterday if he wanted us to buy some leftie scissors, and his answer was, “What! What hand do you ut with?” 😛 I guess he never had any! Now that I think about it, the fact the he has large man-hands is probably a bigger challenge using scissors that left/rightness.
I can’t use leftie scissors, despite being a leftie in most ways. I love the old sewing machines that have the presser-foot lever directly at the back, where you can reach it with your left hand—the newer machines tend to have it on the back right and I have to retrain myself a bit. It took me a million years to not put my pins in backward, but I almost never do it now. I must admit I find being a trainable leftie very convenient—in many of my daily tasks I can pick and choose which hand I use to maximize efficiency and distribute wrist strain. My daughter is so strongly right-handed, she cried in frustration when I tried to teach her touch typing. 🤣
Yes! Not putting in backwards pins is a real challenge. I try to do mine vertical and with the head above the raw edge so I can flip which side I sew on but it would be so lovely to pin them backwards without thinking about it.
Did I know you are a leftie?? The things you learn. 🙂
I definitely think you should buy some for him, you don’t realise how much of a difference it makes until you try (I have had this confirmed by right handed people who struggle to use my scissors too).
Great post. Are you ambidextrous or mixed-handed? I recently learned (after calling myself ambi for years) that I’m actually mixed. I do some things with my left-hand (like writing) and other things with my right-hand (like throwing or cutting). Where it messes me up the most is in hand sewing. Sometimes I just follow the right-handed instructions. Other times, I just do what my hands want to (as long as the stitch looks the same in the end).
Oh that’s an interesting distinction! I tend towards my left but with many things I can train myself to use my right… but I can’t generally switch effortlessly between the two. When I was doing a lot of computer work, I started switching the mouse back and forth to distribute the strain on my wrist—but I had to choose certain tasks to do with the left mouse and others with the right mouse. I couldn’t, say, use my left all morning and my right all afternoon.
Thanks for sharing your perspective and experience. My Grandfather was the same story as yours and no one else in my family besides me are lefties. I call myself a lefty but according to K-line’s distinction, I am sort of mixed with a preference for a certain hand in some things and pretty ambidextrous with others. I can use scissors with either hand but prefer my right. I learned to knit and sew from righties, as a kid, and didn’t see any reason to learn to do them the opposite way from how most people did — although I remember my teacher offering to teach me to knit lefty. It was easier to learn new skills in the way others were doing it. I think my dexterity developed fairly evenly because of this. I can hand sew as well as use a rotary cutter with either hand. That said, I often pin things the opposite way as there’s still not one “right” way to me. I look forward to reading the other parts of the series.
Thank you for sharing! I am a righty, but I teach knitting and crochet…and have had to teach myself to crochet left-handed in order to teach lefties. (I have also taught many lefties how to stop knitting backwards). Since then handed-ness has always been super interesting to me. It’s great to hear another perspective….and now i may need to learn to make myself some shoes.
Another leftie sewist here! I have adapted to most all sewing tools, with 2 exceptions; ergonomic rotary cutters and applique scissors. The rotary cutter is no big deal; I find the stick design works just as well. The applique scissors are another story, though. I cannot use them with my right hand, and cannot make them cut well with my left. Gingher makes the best ones, but not in leftie, so I had to buy the much less than excellent alternative.
oh yes! The ergonomic rotary cutters are a class A DISASTER. I’m useless with those. I’ve managed to work with appliqué and duckbill scissors though I don’t love it.
That’s interesting you say that – I’m a lefty and have an ergonomic rotary cutter but I just unscrewed the blade attachments and put them on the other side and it works fine for me. I do struggle when I’m in a class, though – I often find that very little provision is made and there’s generally a only single pair of left-handed fabric scissors, which doesn’t help when there’s more than one lefty in the class! Would love to see left-handed snips or embroidery scissors as well. I like to think that I’ve adapted well to a right-handed world but I’m not THAT good!
I’ve been searching for decent leftie applique scissors for years. I found some cheap ones, but they’re next to useless. How many of us need to shout for Gingher to hear us?
Wow! I have the same iron and have experienced that challenge but didn’t realize it wouldn’t happen to a right handed sewist. Mind blown! I use an ergonomic rotary cutter and love it. I just switch the side the blade is on. I do use righty scissors… not sure I’d bother with lefty ones. Side bar: my office has special pencils, pens and notebooks for lefties!
I used to always start my sketchbooks from the back, so that I could draw on the left-hand page without having a big coil in the way!
Really? How are the pencils and pens different? I wouldn’t have thought of that.
I like K-Line’s description of being mix-handed. That’s me too – eat, hand sew, write with the left, cut with right handed scissors, do sporty things right handed. I think we lefties are more adaptable. I never have been able to get the hang of crochet; both hands seem unable to work together no matter which hand holds the hook.
i think the hardest thing I’ve faced is spiral bound notebooks. That binding gets in the way of my left hand So Badly! I like using steno notebooks with the spiral at the top.
I follow a tip which was passed on to my by another leftie – I write one page top to bottom, and the next page bottom to top. That way the spiral is always on the right.
I used to be strongly left hand dominant until my twenties when I decided to train myself to use my right hand more. I started out with the computer mouse and moved on from there. I iron right handed now and can hand sew left or right handed. I’ve always knitted right handed (throwing method), but I crochet left handed. I’m working on developing my right handed rotary cutting skills so I don’t have to turn the fabric or mat around after squaring up. While it’s always easier at first to work left handed at a task, I find that practice develops enough muscle memory in my right hand that it eventually feels as natural as doing it left handed. At times it’s very useful to be able approach a sewing task from either side. Very interesting to hear about the development of sewing machine orientation – I had wondered why they are better oriented for lefties.
Another commenter has also mentioned the presser foot lever being at the back right, instead of directly at the back. When I got my most recent machine that really threw me for a while. Its like the microwave, as a leftie I automatically press the open button with my dominant hand and it causes the door to spring open onto my arm. My sister and I are probably the most creative from my family and we are both lefties.
Great post 👍 I’ve taught hairdressing to lefties, and the mirroring trick really helps. I’ve got used to demo-ing with my left hand, but I wouldn’t trust my cutting! 👍🙏✂️😅
Interesting. My MIL is left handed and she really struggles with the automatic threader on her machine – she’s had me try and teach her numerous times – to the point its become a joke in the family about why she can’t learn, Maybe it is just her left handedness that is the problem. I will mention it to her next time!
Yes! Ten bucks it is her handed-ness. I think it’s so hard!
I also could never get it to work on my old machine. I’ve find it easy to do on my new one but can do it all left handed.
This was an interesting post to read! While I am right-handed, my son is left-handed, so it’s always good for me to read about these things in order to help him. For example in one sewing related forum a left-handed woman mentioned that she was happy she had learnt to cut with right-handed scissors as they, as you say, are easier to come by and cheaper.
I just recently got myself a guitar, as my son expressed some interest in learning the guitar (since lost). If he seriously picks up interest I don’t know whether to get him a left-strung guitar or keep with the one we have (which I can play). It’s things like that to consider. While he does most things left-handed, there are some things he does as a right-handed person, like eating (fork in left hand, knife in right). Well, we learn things together and one of the tips I’ve learnt is just the mirror thing, that if I show something I should stand in front of him.
This is fascinating to me, as a left-hander (!) I’m mixed-handed, I think, so scissors are fine as I use those right-handed. What drives me up the wall is that I’m also left-footed, and the cable on my sewing machine’s foot pedal plugs into the right-hand side of the machine and won’t stretch far enough for me to use it with my left foot! Just me, or is this a widespread leftie problem?
My mom is left-handed and it was also ‘trained out of her’ in school. It sounds terrible, she had to write and cut with her left hand tied to her chair, so she would be forced to use her right hand… So now she does various thing with her right hand and other -more natural- movements with her left hand, like combing her hair… So she has a lot more fine motor skills in her non-dominant hand than I ever will (I can do absolutely no fine tasks with my left hand, except use a fork), but the way they went about ‘retraining’ these kids, sounds hideous…
[…] The Sewcialists explain what it’s like to be a left-handed sewist. […]
I really feel your expertise can help me. I am a filipino, left handed, who plans to put up a pet outfit business.i have no machine yet at the moment and currently out of budget due to the covid 19 pandemic. Once this is over, i plan to gather resources from family and at the moment… your expertise can help me plan ahead. 🙂 thank you.
So that’s why that darn needle threader on my sewing machine won’t work! I’m very left handed and always have been. In university there were only 1 or 2 left desks in the entire lecture theatre. Annoying to say the least. I’ve been sewing now over 50 yrs. and still get frustrated when I put my pins in “backwards”. My mother bought me left handed scissors when I was a teenager only because she wanted me to make clothes for her. Whatever. I still have them and use them all the time. I don’t know if I’m allowed to mention a brand name here but a couple of years ago I bought myself a pair of left hand Famore applique scissors and love them. I taught myself to crochet from a left hand crochet book but no such luck with knitting. I also found a left hand embroidery stitch book written by an Aussie and have used it extensively.
It is interesting to note that carpentry tools such as saws are also as right handed as sewing tools. Using a jigsaw is next to impossible for me. How many right handers understand why a purse is right handed? Very few I bet. I make my own. The zipper goes in the left direction and the front of the purse always shows. I could go on and on but I think you get the idea.
My husband is left-handed and didn’t realize that left-handed scissors existed until the 30s! I loved reading your comment with all of its details and suggestions. Thank you!