Is there a knack to opening stitched sacks?

[mesmerred]

Those sacks of dog food, potatoes etc which are stitched across the top - is there a knack to opening them? I seem to remember that if you pull the string in the right way, it all unravels and the bag is open. No need for scissors. Is that right though?

[kempie]

Sacks/bags, when sewed closed with a bag stitcher, usually employ a chain stitch. This appears as a line of 'dashes' on one face of the stitch and interconnected loops on the other - pic 1. The loops are horseshoe shaped, curved with two ends 'pointing' into its neighbour - pic 2.

To easily open a chain stitch, start at the end of the seam indicated by the curved side of the loops, cut the first 'dash' nearest that edge and pull on the second. The loops will release themselves in the direction that they are 'pointing' until the opposite end of the seam is reached.

[Catso]

The purely stiched seam is just as kemplie says. This is often the bottom of the bag. Once you know what to look for, its easy.

The tops (of some) have a different sort of closure, done with a much darker, thicker string with the thin white sort. These often don't 'unzip' like the above.

[mesmerred]

Thanks for your detailed replies. Will be trying it out in the near future. This has been my first question on Answerbank and I have been really pleased to get such quick and useful responses. Thanks again.

[spudqueen]

I work in a shop which sells animal food and most of them are in these types of bags. You have to snip off one end of the stitching (which is left dangling) and them pull the thread, if it doesn't work then snip off the other end (with scissors!).