The only time it's ever mattered...

I'm left handed, and it's never really affected my sewing (or my life). I have right handed shears and I find them fine to use, I have a rotary cutter that's really easy to switch between left and right handed. However, earlier this year I discovered the first thing that I've found where it actually matters that I'm left handed.

Following Gertie's recommendation for ease of trimming seam allowances, I got a pair of duck bill applique scissors for my birthday from my Mum. However when I got home and picked them up to use them I discovered there was no possible way for me to use them in my left hand in the way they're intended to be used.

So I had a look online and could only find one website in the whole of the internets that sell left handed duck bill applique scissors, and it was in the US. So in typical procrastinatory way, I hadn't done anything about it by the time the Australasian Quilt Convention rolled around, so I asked at every booth that was selling scissors if they had left handed duck bill applique scissors, but none of them had any. They had left handed scissors of all other types, where the left/right handed-ness doesn't make a huge difference, but not for the one kind of scissor where it made a difference!

So I eventually got around to ordering some from here. I had to email them to get them to send me a paypal thingy to allow for international shipping, but the service was great. They were shipped within a day of me placing the order, but unfortunately due to crappy postal systems took a month to get to me, but that's no fault of the seller.

The two pairs of scissors next to each other - left handed on the left, right handed on the right.