It’s no secret that I’m a crafter. Whether it’s sewing, painting, or puppet-making, if it’s messy, creative, and a bit quirky—I’m into it. And time and again, I find myself using my Pro Tech Toolkit in the craft room as often as I do in the shop.
Wait, what? That’s right, I use my precision tools for crafting. Crafting is a form of repair in and of itself. Sewing decorative patches on to a pair of jeans, constructing a picture frame out of recycled wood, mending a torn teddy bear—it’s all breathing new life into something you already own. Lucky for me, iFixit’s tools team is as passionate about quality tools as I am about googly eyes and my glue gun. And when it comes to craft tools—quality counts. Here are a few of my favorite crafty uses for my Pro Tech tools:
- Spudger (pointy end)
- Sewing turning tool—Great for pushing corners out to get nice, flat seams.
- Sculpting—I love using my spudgers in clay to carve detail into my work.
- Poking through the little stuck cut-outs on my Cricut projects—A spudger works great for removing any little pieces that don’t quite get perfectly cut out.
- Picking out fur that gets caught in seams—Running a spudger through the loops of caught fur and pulling it out of the seam saves a lot of stitch-ripping.
- Spudger (flat end)
- Bone scoring—Great for crisp folds on handmade cards or paper toys.
- Scraping glue off my table—I told you I was into messy.
- Sculpting—The flat end of the spudger is great for getting smooth surfaces and lines into clay.
- Applying gold leaf—Or anything that needs to lay super flat, honestly.
- Pushing out seams—When you sew two fabrics of different weight, sometimes the seam will try to roll. I love having a spudger handy to push the seam back into place.
- Jimmy
- Marking foam before cutting—This is a great way to score foam.
- Cutting styrofoam—The Jimmy makes a smooth cut or indentation in styrofoam.
- Halbert Spudger
- Emergency crochet hook—You never know when you’re going to need to crochet.
- Parting doll hair (or more often, monster fur)—The hook also works well to achieve more detailed hairstyles and shapes.
- Untangling puppet strings—It’s amazing what happens when you turn your back from a puppet.
- Metal Spudger
- Removing the stuck-on bits of paper from my Cricut mat—The metal spudger is great for scraping off stuck-on bits on just about any work surface.
- Sculpting—Like the other spudgers, the metal spudger is great for sculpting. The rounded shape makes great instant dragon scales or owl feathers in clay.
- Holding a tight corner out while ironing—Inserting the spudger into the corner of a seam while you press it can help hold it in place, just don’t leave the iron it the spudger too long!
- Emergency palette knife—Not kidding, when I am in the painting zone, there is no way I am hunting for a specialty tool if my Pro Tech is sitting nearby.
- Tweezers
- Picking up small strings and threads
- Removing masking fluid
- Setting tiny paper cut-out pieces
- Reverse Tweezers
- Seed bead wrangling—Seriously helpful when working one bead at a time.
- Keeping track of a thread or string while I mess with one end of it.
- Holding up small objects while I glue, glitter, or paint things on to it.
- Angled Tweezers
- These suckers are crazy sharp. If you need to poke a tiny hole, these tweezers are perfect for the job.
- Setting sequins or rhinestones into tiny dots of glue
- Pulling out threads
- Guiding small sewing projects through your sewing machine
- Picks
- Spreading glue
- Spacers—Great for creating a narrow gap between pieces.
- Tracing rounded angles—Sure, I have an oval template, but picks work great too!
- Creasing folds without leaving marks—Picks are great for creasing crepe paper and other delicate materials without leaving much of a mark behind.
- Preventing a needle from going through too many layers—Tuck a pick in between a few layers of fabric while hand-sewing to make sure you don’t sew a pocket shut.
- Bit Kit
- Adjusting the tension on my bobbin case
- Opening paint cans
- Stamping tiny bit shapes onto paper or fabric
- Fixing the loose towel rack—Helpful when you’re constantly washing glitter glue off your hands from crafting so much.
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