Why you actually need fabric scissors not regular scissors if you are going to sew more than one thing ever: A preview lesson of V's Sewing School (a side project I am working on where I teach my friends how to use a sewing machine) because the videos were too long to upload to discord and I was thinking about making it a tumblr post anyway.
Okay so! The thing about fabric scissors is that they are literally made differently than regular scissors. For one thing, the angle of the blades is different to enable you to cut fabric better. For another, they are shaped differently. Here I've drawn on the photo of my fabric shears and my regular scissors to illustrate the difference, but to put it into words, the regular scissors often are shaped like a Y, with the handles both curving outwards to form a Y shape, whereas fabric shears the handle is angled so that the handle and blades form a flat line.
Fabric shears are shaped like that so that when you are cutting fabric, your scissors rest flat against the surface your fabric is laying on. This keeps your hands steady and helps you not wear out your hands so fast as well as keeps your cutting more accurate, which in turn makes the entire process of sewing easier and less stressful, because if you have jagged edges on your pieces and a small seam allowance, such as the 1cm or 3/8ths of an inch that most of the indie patterns I own use, keeping your seam allowance neat as you sew is going to be an absolute nightmare.
Here's a side by side photo of those two scissors laying against my sewing desk.
You can see what I mean by "lies flat against the surface the fabric is resting on." This helps keep your hand steady and helps with the aforementioned cutting inaccuracies and also not wearing out your hands super fast.
You want your fabric scissors SHARP because having well-cut fabric makes the entire process of sewing much easier. Which means
1. never use them on paper. Paper dulls scissors way faster than fabric does. I often introduce people to the concept of fabric scissors by saying "these are my fabric scissors. If you use them to cut paper I will stab you with them." When I was 8 years old and learning how to use a sewing machine, "NEVER use fabric scissors on paper" was one of the first things I was taught.
2. You can and should invest in a scissor sharpening tool. You don't need $50 scissors that have to be oiled and sent back to the manufacturer for sharpening. In fact, my fabric shears were like $20 but you don't even need to spend that much on scissors if you're going to be casual about a sewing hobby. The $12 scissors are literally fine, but IF you get the $12 scissors, you do also need a scissor sharpening tool if you don't want to live the struggle bus seam allowance life. It will prolong the life of your scissors. You don't have to get it right away, but once your cutting experience goes from smooth to frustrating, get the sharpener.
Now. I just for funsies decided to do an experiment and cut fabric, or at least attempt to cut fabric, with 3 different pairs of scissors I could find in my house. So here's some videos of me cutting fabric with my regular scissors, the kitchen shears that have been in my house longer than I have, and my fabric shears!
As you can see, the regular/craft scissors didn't cut the fabric at all, and the kitchen shears did two small jagged cuts despite the fact that I closed the scissors on the fabric more than once. Whereas the fabric scissors cut the fabric like butter with a neat edge.
This is why you want fabric scissors! They make sewing so much less frustrating! You don't need expensive ones, but you DO need to only use them on fabric and invest in a way to sharpen them if you don't want to replace them every time they get dull. You'll know they're dull when they no longer smoothly cut fabric and your edges are all ragged and not neat. If you have jagged edges, it could be you as a beginner, or it could be that your scissors need sharpened.
