I must be on a tool kick lately.
There are tools, and there are Tools, when it comes to the tools I like to use in my needlework pursuits.
The tools – those are the ho-hum, every day tools. They’re there, but I don’t think much about them. They don’t excite me. A roll of scotch tape fits into this category. I use it all the time, but it’s nothing I’d jump over the moon over (though, come to think of it, life without it would be drastically different!)
The Tools-with-a-capital-T – those are the ones that I am over the moon about. The ones that, through some serendipitous chance, we met, and every time I use them, I find myself gazing at them amorously, asking where they have been all my life.
Clover Wonder Clips fall into this latter Tools-with-a-capital-T category. If you haven’t used them, you must. They will come in handy for so many things related to needlework.
I had heard of Wonder Clips before – a few readers have mentioned them here and there in comments on the website – but I never really thought that clips would be something to get too excited about.
But they’re called Wonder Clips for a reason, I guess!
This is the thing: Wonder Clips, which come in a package of 10 clips or in bulk packages of 50, are small clips with large mouths and flat backs, that close flat on fabric or anything else you’re clipping.
As quilters probably know, they work well for clipping binding in place when preparing to sew it up. But if you’re not a quilter, you can expand that example to clipping flat any kind of hemming situation previous to sewing.
Yes, you can pin, but the clips are fast and painless, they hold hems flat, they keep the fabric pucker free, and they are a breeze to move as you work.
Imagine working a hemstitch along a piece of linen, where you’ve turned up the hem to the line of drawn thread where you want to work the hem stitch. These clips are perfect for holding your hem in precisely the place you want it.
Really, the clips are fantastic for any kind of finish work!
Where were they when I was doing all those Little Things?!?!
If you’re working on any of the Lavender Honey & Other Little Things projects, or if you’re making Christmas ornaments, or if you’re hemming handkerchiefs – these little wonders are indispensable.
They’re great for holding a turned edge on needlepoint canvas. If you work in hand and roll your excess work, they make the perfect little clip for holding your rolled work in place.
Do you frame your own work? These guys will hold your fabric in place while you lace it up onto the mat board. And they won’t mark the fabric up, either.
Do you make fabric or embroidered boxes and the like? Oh-my-oh-my, you must get these. They will make the finish work So Much Easier!
What makes them different from other clips, clothes pins, or the like? Well, first of all, they’re small – they are 1″ long. Clothes pins can hold onto things, but their length and weight are problematic – they get in the way. These don’t.
Even better is the fact that they have flat backs and flat sides to their mouths – whatever they hold is held flat, so that the hem or edge or whatever it is doesn’t pucker or wrinkle up.
Finally, they are marked on the back with 1/4″ and 1/2″ seam markings, so that you can place the clips precisely where you want them and they can aid in determining how much fabric to turn under, etc., when doing finish work.
The fact that they are red? Well. To me, it’s a bonus.
If you don’t have these beauties in your tool box yet, look for them through your favorite needlework shops! I am completely twitterpated by them and I’m constantly finding One More Thing they work great for.
If you try them, you’ll probably end up like me, whispering Where have you been all my life? every time you put them to a new use!
Really.
I mean it.
I love them.
Amen.
