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Safety in the Sewing RoomWhen my mother first started teaching me to sew, she told me about one of her earliest sewing mishaps. She was about five years old, and was playing with her mother's treadle machine (even though she knew she wasn't allowed to). Sure enough, she turned the flywheel while her finger was under the needle. But she knew if she cried out, she would be punished for playing with the machine, so she had to back the needle out and bandage the wound herself. Her mother never found out about the accident, and my mother never had another machine mishap again. Mom's story made a big impression on me; I have always been a cautious sewer. So far (knock wood!) I have avoided any serious sewing injury, but thousands of other sewing enthusiasts every year are not as fortunate. Sewing involves lots of opportunities for injury. Some of these are obvious, but some are less so. Sewers can injure their bodies in almost imperceptible ways. The most obvious injuries are those caused by sharp implements, such as needles and cutting tools. In addition to puncture wounds, sewers are at risk for slicing wounds (from scissors and rotary cutters) and burns (from irons). Taking basic precautions will reduce the risk of injury in the sewing room. There are three very basic safety rules that will, if followed, go a long way towards reducing the risk of injury in the sewing room: Rule Number One: Only cut or sew when you are awake, aware and able to focus. If you are tired, distracted, anxious, upset, rushed or tipsy, you are putting yourself at unnecessary risk of injury. If you insist on being in the sewing room anyway, restrict yourself to tasks that do not involve cutting, sewing or ironing. Rule Number Two: Keep your machinery and tools in top condition. Your scissors should be sharp, your sewing machine oiled and tuned. Rule Number Three: Keep your work area tidy. Sweep the floor for stray pins; don't keep boxes or bins stacked up where you could run into them. Working with sharp things Sewing requires working with sharp objects, like needles and scissors. All of these will pierce or cut you very easily, so treat them with respect! You should always wear shoes in the sewing room. All it takes is a single stray pin or needle to ruin your day. According to one survey in Australia, 90% of piercing injuries to feet required hospital admission. Also, dropped scissors or rotary cutters can cause serious injury to unprotected feet. Where do you keep your pins? You can use a standard pincushion, but my favorite storage device is the magnetic bowl. You can buy them at auto supply stores, or you can make your own by gluing a magnet to the bottom of a shallow bowl. Just be aware that you shouldn't keep these near computerized sewing machines. Do be mindful of your pins! In October 2004, a 25-year-old tailor in India required surgery to remove a pin embedded in his chest, just below his heart. The pin had been in his shirt pocket. If you are teaching a young child to sew, you can ask your sewing machine dealer if there is a "finger guard" available for your machine model. This usually consists of a heavy wire "gate" that surrounds the presser foot and needle area and helps keep fingers out of the way of the needle. However, it?s not foolproof and is no substitute for careful attention! Disposing of sharp things How do you throw away a used needle? Very, very carefully. Here are a few ideas for safe storage and disposal of sharp objects: 1) Drill a hole in the cap of an empty prescription bottle and keep it near your sewing machine; drop used machine needles through the hole. When the bottle is full, cover the cap with tape and put the whole thing in the trash. Or, keep one of those tiny empty mint boxes near your sewing machine and put your used needles in the case when you are done. Dispose off the case when its full. 2) Sandwich used rotary blades between pieces of cardboard and tape them securely before discarding. 3) Keep scissors in their sheaths, if they came with one. If not, hang them from hooks or keep them in a drawer. Use an elastic pony tail holder to secure the blades closed while in storage. 4) If you have small children, be sure to keep all blades, scissors, pins, cutters, snips, needles, etc. on a high shelf or a locked cupboard. Long-term safety Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSI) are insidious afflictions. They creep up slowly, causing cumulative damage to the body, often slowly enough that the victim doesn't realize there is a problem until a lot of damage has already been done. Most people are familiar with Carpal Tunnel syndrome (a common injury for people who spend a lot of time at their computers); there are a lot of other RSIs that can impact sewers: * Twisting injuries, caused by repeatedly twisting the torso from one side to the other to perform a task * Elbow strain, often caused by improper table and/or chair height * Back strain, caused by poor posture and/or machinery positioning, or even bad lighting * Tendon damage in the thumb, due to poor scissors It is crucial to maintain the proper posture and positioning when operating a sewing machine. The Home Sewing Association (www.sewing.org) offers a free publication, "Sewing Room Setup for Healthy Sewing" (No. 21.110) with guidelines for setting the proper chair and table height to prevent injury. Pay attention also to your cutting table height. Many people resort to a dining table to cut out patterns, or even the floor, but either of these will eventually lead to back and shoulder problems. The ideal cutting table height falls somewhere between your hip and your elbow. Try raising your cutting table with pieces of PVC pipe, bed risers or some other sturdy material to get it to the proper height. Don't overlook the role of lighting in sewing room safety. Inadequate lighting around the sewing machine can cause the operator to squint, hunch over and otherwise strain to see work. Bright, glare-free light is essential. Consider full-spectrum fluorescent lights over each sewing machine, and a large fluorescent fixture suspended over the cutting and pressing area. Halogen fixtures are too much of a fire risk to use in sewing areas. Most sewing machine lights are not bright enough to illuminate your work clearly. Adding a desktop fluorescent fixture to your sewing station reduces eye strain by providing even light over your whole work surface, not just the bed of the machine. Many sewers regard their scissors as sacred objects, but did you know they can injure your hand every time you use them? Scissors must fit the hand properly or the user risks tendon and nerve damage. The finger holes must be large enough to comfortably accommodate all your fingers, and the pivot point must be loose enough to permit opening the scissors with minimal effort. Most of the wrist damage from scissors comes not from the effort of closing them to cut, but from the strain of continuously opening them up! Don't rely on one pair of scissors to do all your cutting. Invest in a battery or electric powered cutter; you will avoid a lot of wrist problems down the line. Environmental Hazards Modern fabrics have opened up a whole new world for home sewers, and they have also exposed those same sewers to environmental hazards. Textile manufacturing incorporates a host of chemicals that may linger in the fabric, including solvents and surfactants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from transformers and other machinery, asbestos from spinning machines or structures, bleaching products such as hydrogen peroxide, phosphates from detergents or water softeners, insecticides, phenol (a manmade substance used to make synthetics such as nylon), underground storage tank contents, waste oil, and other petroleum products. Solvents comprise the majority of hazardous waste generated by textile mills. Spent solvents are used to clean machinery and for dyeing, finishing, dry-cleaning, and other specialty operations, and they include tetrachloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), benzene, and ethylene dichloride (1,2-dichloroethane). When released into soil or water or evaporated into the air, these substances can be harmful to humans. Health effects due to overexposure by inhalation, ingestion, or contact with these solvents include dizziness, headache, nausea, lung effects, liver and kidney diseases, unconsciousness, and even death. PCE and TCE have the potential to cause cancer based on laboratory testing. (Source: Hazardous Substance Research Centers/South & Southwest Outreach Program, June 2006) There is a great deal of research going on about the rise of chemical sensitivities; if you are susceptible to them you should pre-wash all fabrics before bringing them into your sewing room. General Common Sense Rules Keep a fire extinguisher handy in the sewing room. Make sure it is rated "ABC" so it will be effective for electrical fires as well as other types. Be mindful of electrical safety. If you have a computerized sewing machine, plug it into a surge suppressor (available at any computer or electronics store). Don't overload your electrical circuits. Sewing machines don't draw a lot of current, so you can have several on the same circuit. However, an iron should not share a circuit with more than a few light bulbs as it is a big energy hog. If you use extension cords, be sure they are heavy-duty, polarized and grounded (i.e. 3-prong). Safety for Others: One last reminder: if you have cats, you need to be scrupulous about picking up your thread scraps, and keep your thread spools safely out of reach of curious and playful kitties. A cat can ingest thread while playing with it, and the thread can become lodged in their intestines, requiring expensive emergency surgery to save their lives. Since sewing is so dear to so many of us, we often don't realise that if not used properly, the tools we love so much can really harm us. If we put just a little thought into everything we do in the Sewing room and around the house, and follow some simple safety rules, we can make our sewing experience even more pleasurable and avoid unpleasant accidents. About the Author: Welmoed Sisson owns Sewing Seams Easy, a custom window treatment workroom in Boyds, Maryland. She has been sewing since she was eight years old, and has won several awards for her projects. She also teaches classes at G Street Fabrics. |
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