In general though, even the best pinking shears will be a bit slower and need slightly more force than normal dressmaking shears (the scissors that cut fabric in straight lines). This is because the 2 blades are zig-zagged with a tight space between them, so they have to pass through a narrow and complex shape to cut, unlike straight blades. Put your hands in the pinking shear handles. Your thumb will go into the top handle and your other fingers will go into the bottom handle. They work on woven fabrics and non-woven materials (eg. felt). They’re not designed for knit fabrics.

Some pinking shears will require a lot of force to cut. If your shears are old, this may be a sign that they need sharpening. Or a good clean and oil. If your shears are brand new, it may be because they’re budget scissors and the teeth aren’t perfectly aligned. Fabric description: Light to medium weight fabric = easy to cut. Quite tightly woven (for linen) so less prone to fraying. If the fabric is loosely woven (meaning there are large gaps between threads), and the item needs to be frequently washed and tumble dried, you’re more likely to see fraying. Pinked edges work best on tightly woven fabrics that are rarely washed and dried. Here’s why pinking shears reduce fraying: To further secure your pinked edges you could sew a straight line of stitching between the seam line and pinked edges (try a short stitch length of 2mm). This acts as another barrier to stop any fraying from reaching the seams and creating holes.Open the shears. Move them up along the cut. Line up the teeth with the end of your previous cut and close the blades again. This will give you a neat and consistent zig zag.

To finish the raw edges of fabric and reduce fraying. Especially if the fabric is tightly woven and won’t be washed or handled often.

Customer reviews

Here are some fabrics that I cut using LDH pinking shears. You can see what they look like after I rubbed the edges. Most of them did fray a little, but not too much, and it was hard to pull out long lengths of thread. So pinking the edges did improve things. Cotton-linen blend fabric test:

Sew your seam. Depending on what you’re making, you may be told to press the seam allowances open or to one side using an iron. Once woven fabric is cut into tiny zig zags along the “bias grain”, it becomes harder to pull out a long thread from the fabric and start unraveling it. Any agitation of the fabric just sheds tiny threads. They’re not used on stretchy knits because these fabrics don’t fray, so there’s no need to finish the edges. Pinking shears may also cause snags and runs in knit fabric. Squeeze the shears to close the blade and make the first cut. Cut all the way to the tip of the blade. Place the fabric you want to cut in between the blades. Be careful not to include any layers that you don’t want to cut. You can make the seam allowance narrow or wide, but I recommend only cutting off a small amount like ⅛” (0.3cm). This way there’s a larger seam allowance, making it harder for any fraying to reach the line of stitching.Yes, pinking shears can be sharpened, but this should only be done by professionals. They will sharpen each tooth with specialist equipment and know the correct angle to sharpen them (this differs between brands). It’s important not to file the teeth between the blades yourself. You can use a mail-in service to send your shears for sharpening.

Pinking shears are scissors that make small zig-zag cuts in fabric. Their main purpose is to reduce how much the fabric frays. They’re mainly used on light to medium weight woven fabrics, but high-quality pinking shears will be able to handle heavy-weight fabrics like denim and canvas without “chewing” them. Closed. Open. This is what my fabric edge looked like after I cut it with pinking shears. Pinking shears are not used to cut out your pattern pieces. You need your pattern pieces to be cut out accurately using straight cuts, not zig zags. Pinking shears would cut zig zags that could mess up your seam allowance requirements and leave you with too little fabric to work with. It would also be harder to match pattern pieces and sew them together.

What to read next…