Miscellaneous

Threading ribbon through a long casing with electrician fish tape

A cheap nylon electrician fish tape (the kind sold without a spool) can be useful to thread ribbon or elastic through a long casing, such as one where a garment is gathered (e.g. at the neckline or waistline).

Get the shortest length you can find (I’d recommend buying a new one rather than trying to clean an used one which is more likely to stain garments), and cut a lenght of about 2-3 m from one end: longer lenghts are unwieldy and won’t probably be needed for most garments.

Tip

the remaining tape can be used e.g. as stiffening at the hem of a skirt.

To use, take the uncut end, with the metal loop and thread it through the casing.

Then pass the elastic or ribbon through the metal loop, leaving quite a bit of overlap.

And finally, pull the fish tape from the other side, threading the elastic through the casing.