Good Cloth Scissors for Little Hands???

[rockinhippy]

Can anyone recommend any please??

DD is 8, & really wants a pair of her own good fabric shears for Xmas,

we have all the usual kids crafting scissors, but they are pretty useless when it comes to any real cutting out with fabric & my own good dressmaking shears are just too big for her small hands to handle on her own, she gets very frustrated asking for help, & tries with 2 hands, but hard to be accurate cutting that way, & shes a bit of a mini perfectionist, so usually ends up in tears :(

I've asked around in haberdashery shops etc, but no joy, one blaming the "elf & safety brigade" which is probably true , but just wondered if anyone else had any ideas on a good alternative, or had seen anything for sale anywhere

I started dressmaking very young too & it ended up been my trade, so I really do want to encourage her interest, but I don't remember having the same trouble over scissors & at the moment, unless I can find her something that does the job for her, I can see it putting her off all together :( ...any ideas appreciated :)

[chaosisawayoflife]

Is she careful/dextrous enough to use a rotary cutter? I use mine for most cutting as I am rubbish with scissors (I blame it on being left-handed but I think really I'm just slap-dash!).

[rockinhippy]

Thanks :) I hadn't thought of trying her with 1 of those,.....though she can get distracted very easily, so not sure it will be the best idea for her, but she might prove me wrong (shes good at that..lol) .... I do have them already though, so if I can find my mat, it won't cost me anything to give her a try on it

[pookamoo]

I had a small pair which were very useful, not specifically "child" size but still smaller than my big shears.
They were part of a range that my local sewing shop stocks, so maybe ask your suppliers and see what they stock?

Mine had turquoise handles and sadly met their end earlier this year (but that's another story!)

I would imagine that the key is to buy a good sharp pair and to only use them for fabric, so they stay sharp.

[rockinhippy]

Thanks pooamoo

I have asked in local haberdashers, but to be honest they've just not been much help in suggesting alternatives, only that there are no specific kids ones.....though there was a smallish turquoise pair that I was looking at in 1 of the shops, caught my eye as its DDs favourite colour.....but the shop assistant couldn't say if they were any good or not, so I'm now hopeful they might well be the same ones you had, as its not a common colour for scissors :)

we have tried before with other smaller scissors & keeping them cloth only, but the ones we've tried, just never been that good to start off with,

[pookamoo]

I'm home now and had a look at my scissors to see the brand, which seems to be KAI Japan, although looking online I can't see the same ones. I will have a scout about on google and report back...

[pookamoo]

hmmm... google proving fruitless, so I phoned my local store to see if they still stock them (mine are about 15 years old now I just worked out!!! ) but sadly not, sorry!

I hope you can find something for your DD.

I know exactly what you mean about starting them young - my DD is only 2 and she sits on my knee at the sewing machine and her Very Important Job is to put the pins back in the pin cushion after I have finished with them!

[rockinhippy]

thank you for trying :)

I did find a pair that looked like they might be okay,the same ones mentioned above.....no idea if they were though, as I put them in her stocking - & got up on xmas morning to find she'd been using them to cut the wrapping paper & packaging off the rest of her xmas presents, so they are now blunt as hell no good for cloth - she did say it was very clever of santa to thinkof putting something in her stocking to open her other gifts with.....bloody kids eh!!