While I’m working on a skirt or two and coordinating some of the faaaaabulous guest posts for Skirt Week, I thought I’d share my new favorite tools.
I found this set of three tools at Mary Jo’s a few weeks ago while I was down there for Easter. The set was $1.50, and it looked promising– so I bought one for me and one for Adrianna. I was feeling wildly generous.
I’d never heard of a “bodkin”. I would have thought it was some sort of toy. And actually, it sort of feels like one if you’ve ever tried to shimmy a safety pin through a catchy fabric. The first time I used the “ball point bodkin” to thread elastic through a casing I was tempted to pull it out and do it again just to enjoy how effortless it felt compared to fiddling with a safety pin for the same purpose. It just sliiiiiiiiid through and popped out of the other side almost by itself.
I haven’t been able to find the same set online, but this
Just posting, you know, in case you’re using your best swear words trying to get elastic through the top of your new skirt?
I was introduced to these about 10 years ago and they are my favorite tool. Also great for turning corners – poking the fabric back into a corner shape.
There is also the famous Shakespeare lines in Hamlet’s soliloquoy “To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.—Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember’d.
Read more: William Shakespeare: Hamlet, Act III — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/t/lit/shakespeare-plays/hamlet-act3-1.html#id3677681#ixzz1OFPCJU00
Odds Bodkins! Who knows what other ancient pleasures are yet to be found?
wow. these are so cool. how have I never seen them before?!
Bodkin! Thank you! I used the small pincher one once to pull elastic through and it was a dream! I’ve never been able to find one since and it didn’t help that I had no clue what it was called!
I have one of those pincer bodkins and it has never worked great for me… but I guess I was using it to try to turn things inside out which is maybe not the purpose. The long one looks awesome! And what a steal at $1.50!!
That’s great info to know. My husband has had to tell me to “take a break,” as I’ve been fighting elastic through skirts. Thanks for the tip!!
I have something similar but I am afraid I don’t know how to use it so I swear and curse when the elastic suddenly slips from the hole… WHat happen then? I get frustrated and go back to the classical pin!
I get excited about posts like this – I absolutely love bodkins. My daughter has also been using one to learn how to sew (yarn, bodkin, and fruit mesh!). They are versatile tool.
My favorite one has a hook on the end. It can be a bit treacherous to fabric but if you’re careful it’s a real time saver!
Funny! Bodkin… sounds like a term you’d use to describe a surfer or something!
The pincher bodkin has saved my sanity more than once. I also have one you thread for smaller elastics, but I haven’t used it much. I got my set at the local fabric store and it’s put out by Clover. I would love the threading bodkin you have with the ball on the end. I have never seen one of those.
I’m going to keep an eye for one or more, I never even suspected such a useful tool could exist!
The threading bodkin looks a lot like the ones to clean out flutes.
http://www.amazon.com/Leblanc-Metal-Flute-Cleaning-Rod/dp/B0002E3D2Q/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1307390214&sr=8-3
They might be easier to find (any music shop should have them)
You did an awesome job on the dress. She looks very happy in the pictures and it looks great on her. You are VERY lucky to have such a dependable person to keep an eye on your kids.
I found out about bodkins about a year ago when Nancy was using them on her show. She’s got them on her website and there are two that I really want to buy yet haven’t done so yet. I just took a peek there and not only does she have the two I’ve been wanting, but she does carry the ball point bodkin you have shown in your post as well.
Just in case the links I paste don’t work, you can go to Nancy’s Notions and just type ‘bodkin’ into the search box and you’ll get the three different ones she’s selling. And right now they’re on sale too.
This is the one I really like
http://www.nancysnotions.com/product/bodkin+set.do#
And this one too..
http://www.nancysnotions.com/product/wide+bodkin.do
And here’s the one you’ve got pictured:
http://www.nancysnotions.com/product/ballpoint+bodkin.do