Over time, the handle of these basic Ikea scissors had become sticky, as if they were covered in some kind of tacky residue. Touching it was unpleasant and left a stickiness on my hands every time I did. This also means that when cutting fabric, I was down to only one hand to touch the fabric with because the sticky residue only comes off with soap and warm water.
The scissor itself is still fine, so I decided I could just fix the handle. That was some years ago, and the scissor has been sitting in the cupboard, waiting for me to get in gear ever since. Which I finally have.
Because the handle is sticky, it also gathers all the crap:
You can use this method to cover just about anything!
I like to spruce up charging and headphone wires!
A note on the thread to use for this; depending on what the goal of the object is, you can use embroidery floss or thread or even yarn. However, yarn won’t be as durable as a mercerised floss or thread. You can often tell if something is mercerised by the sheen; the shinier, the more mercerised (embroidery floss is often double mercerised).
What is mercerising? It’s a process of treating cotton thread in a caustic solution which causes the fibres to swell allowing dye to penetrate the fibres deeper, thereby increasing the beauty of the colour while also strengthening the thread.
Since you will also be doing quite a bit of tugging and tightening of the floss as you work, to ensure it sits snugly and won’t unravel, soft yarns or thin threads may just end up snapping and preventing you from finishing the wrapping.
My absolute favourite to use for this is embroidery floss; it’s durable and comes in any colour I could possibly want.
For wrapping an object with floss you need:
- Embroidery floss
- Small needle (I prefer a rounded tip to decrease the risk of poking myself while I work) – you can also do this without a needle, but I find finishing off easiest with a needle
- Sharp scissor, smaller is easier to use precisely
- Item you want to wrap
How to wrap
Begin by tying a simple knot and leave a decent short tail. This will be left underneath the binding as you work, securing it in place.
Consider if you want the “knots” on one side and place the knot on that side. In this case, I wanted the knots on the outside of the handle, so that when you’re holding/using the scissor, you can’t feel the knots.
Use the D-loop method to wrap the thread around the handle (or whatever you’re wrapping). The D-loop can be on the top or bottom, doesn’t matter, the important thing is that you create a D-shape with your thread, loop the tail around the handle, and then bring it through the D-loop.
This is a really simple technique that you’ll get the hang of in no time. The explanation of it always feels overly complex when compared to how easy it is to do.
Tighten the thread around the handle, jiggling the yarn into place, and getting the “knot” where you want it to sit. The tighter the better in the case of this handle. If you’re wrapping wires, don’t squeeze them too hard – just tight enough for the thread to stay put, but not so hard it squeezes the wires inside.
Once you’ve wrapped a little way, leaving the short tail from the beginning under the wrapping as you go, you can cut it off and leave it. It’ll stay put just fine. When you get to the end, you’ll want to take the working tail and sew it back under the wrapping.
Alternately, you can tie a knot at the end and cut the tail, but I prefer tucking it back under the wrap for a really clean finish. This is where the needle comes in handy.
You don’t have to use a needle for the wrapping, you can simply pass the thread through the loop with your fingers and use a knot to tie off at the end. I like using a needle because it helps to focus my attention on where I’m working.
And here’s the final result! (I’m almost sad I don’t have more scissors to do this to 😂)
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