But I’m darned if I know what to call it. Follow the process, if you will, and advise accordingly.
As so often happens, necessity was the mother of this design. I got sick of constantly mislaying my tiny scissors – the ones I use for snipping off ends of thread, yarn etc. What with working on the rose quilt and churning out a stream of granny squares for prayer blankets – not to mention wrestling with socks – those scissors were getting a lot of use, in a lot of different places.
Officially, their place was in the butterfly hussif – it has a special pocket for them and all. But despite my best efforts, the hussif isn’t really pocket-sized (bulgy unless one wears very full skirts) and so I got in the habit of popping the scissors into the tea-tin I cart about everywhere with the granny-square stuff in it. Plus a darning needle, for sewing in the ends post-snip. But then sometimes they’d be in the hussif with the rest of the rose-quilting materials. Or in the tea tin which has the sock-knitting materials.
Result: always hunting for scissors. Aha! a design problem! For some reason I am always pleased to chew over a design problem, despite the fact that my brain’s simulator has a rather patchy grasp of physics and I’ve never yet managed to find the perfect solution. But that doesn’t stop me trying! My inner Edna Mode is always up for a challenge.
There were, I decided, two basic approaches to this problem. One: acquire many pairs of small scissors – seems wasteful – or Two: arrange to have scissors on or about person at all times. (Except at night. There is a reason parents do not give their little kiddies scissors to cuddle when they tuck them in to bed.)
Approach number two includes possibilities such as: Wear scissors on chain around neck? Wear scissors as brooch, a la pince nez? Buy nice pair of folding scissors for safe pocket-carrying? Or – be still my beating heart – acquire a scissor-holding chatelaine. (Further information and delicious examples here.)
Result: a… look, we’re going to have to come up with a name for this. Scissor holster? Holder? Keeper? It’s basically a card-sized fridge magnet covered in fabric with a pockety bit to cover the points of the scissors and darning needle. Total weight 36 grams.
The fabric is Random Dark Blue Something Scrappy I Found In The Stash, and the construction was simple: fold fabric in half lengthways, machine down the other side and one end (the other end was selvage), turn inside out, insert fridge magnet, fold up extra length and whip in place as pocket.
The whole thing pops simply and easily into the pocket of my dress and as long as I remember it’s there, I need never find myself short-scissored again. No, it’s not as beautiful as a chatelaine would be – or even an etui – but it does the job without being extravagantly ugly, and that’s all I’m asking. For now.
All that’s left is to find something to call it. Leonard of Quirm would probably call it “a fabric-covered magnetic device with pocket arrangement for retaining a small pair of scissors and a darning needle for facilitated transport” or something of the sort, but I feel we can do better. Ideas?
That’s absolutely brilliant! Well done! My equivalent of your hussif has been a small Strepsils tin – yes once upon a time we fossils used to buy our medicines in tins – that i’ve carried with me across the globe since I was at school. It contains a stitch ripper, some thread, a thimble and assorted pins, needles, buttons, safety pin, and other miscellaneous stuff, all held in with a rubber band around the tin, just in case of accidents. But the big, or small, missing ingredient was the scissors. So I am duly impressed with your creation – definitely worth replicating for the purpose of presents, although buying that many pairs of small, sharp scissors may well limit this idea on the grounds of cost.
The scissors in question were abstracted from an ancestral travel-manicure set. And where, as Katisha so justly remarks, shall I find such another?
I think I would simply call it The Scissor Pouch.
Alternatively, give it an exotic name (in the same way plants, animal species and medical conditions are named after their finders), or even call it after your namesake (Dorcas).
Scissor Pouch? It’s not terribly pouchy. But a Dorcas! Sounds like a great idea.
(Pauses to make sure name not already in use for some other article of needleworkery…)
Nope – it’s just a gazelle, apparently. A Dorcas Circle or Society is a group of people who get together to make clothes for those in need, but that’s all right – it’s never just called a Dorcas.
On the other hand, this thing almost fits the definition of a hussif or huswife, and it does fit the definition of an etui: “A small ornamental bag or rigid container used for holding articles such as needles.” Except for not being ornamental, now I think of it. Perhaps calling it a dorcas would be reasonable, under the circs.