Right vs. Left hand survey

Writing about that "right handed" sewing machine yesterday made me start thinking about lefties and righties.  

A friend of mine, the Goosemother, who has a sewing blog and pattern website, wrote in to say she's never been able to master left handed scissors. Which must mean she's left handed.  But then "Jen of OZ" wrote saying she is right handed, but posted this wonderful quote.

"If right handedness is determined by the development of the left side of the brain, does that mean that only left-handed people are in their right minds?"

SO, today I am going to be scientific. My physicist husband will approve.  I am going to conduct my first survey ... I've been wanting an excuse to do this.  There are several feature of the blog program I use that I've been wanting to try.

Left handed people make up 10% of the population, but four of the last seven commanders in chief -- President Obama, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Gerald Ford are lefties.  Also, left handed people are more likely to go into the arts, which pay less, so lefties earn on average 10% less that right handed people ... grrrrr. 

More fun facts about left handed people can be found in this Huffington Post article.
I'm curious if the percentage of left handed people is greater than 10% among people who sew.

I would like all of you who sew to answer these questions. BOTH righties and lefties ... please.  It won't be scientific otherwise and I'll get grief from my husband, and you wouldn't want that!

THEN ... you can go to this website that has a little test to determine how dominant your left hand is over your right.  It only takes a minute, 30 seconds per hand.

Right-Left Test

I just did it and I only had a 3 point difference.  Even though I write and draft with my left hand, I do every other sewing operation with my right, ironing, hand sewing, cutting, etc. So, this test showed that I have pretty good coordination with my right hand.

Then, here is an interesting set of questions to determine which hand is dominant.

Left-handedness test
We all, of course, know in which hand we hold a pen, but how far does this bias extend throughout your body? Are you left-eared? Left eyed? Here is a simple test you can apply to yourself.

1. Imagine the centre of your back is itching. Which hand do you scratch it with?
2. Interlock your fingers. Which thumb is uppermost?
3. Imagine you are applauding. Start clapping your hands. Which hand is uppermost?
4. Wink at an imaginary friend straight in front of you. Which eye does the winking?
5. Put your hands behind your back, one holding the other. Which hand is doing the holding?
6. Someone in front of you is shouting but you cannot hear the words. Cup your ear to hear better. Which ear do you cup?
7. Count to three on your fingers, using the forefinger of the other hand. Which forefinger do you use?
8. Tilt your head over on to one shoulder. Which shoulder does it touch?
9. Fixate a small distant object with your eyes and point directly at it with your forefinger. Now close one eye. Now change eyes. Which eye was open when the fingertip remained in line with the small object? (When the other eye, the non-dominant one, is open and the dominant eye is closed, the finger will appear to move to one side of the object.)
10. Fold your arms. Which forearm is uppermost?

If you have always considered yourself to be right or left-handed you will probably now have discovered that your body is less than total in its devotion to its favoured side. If you are right-handed the chances are that you were not able to be 'right' 10 times.

I answered 8 of the 10 questions LEFT. So, even though I've trained myself to do sewing things with my right hand, I'm still basically a lefty.


Now how did you do on this test?

Thank you for indulging me.  I will share the results in a day or two.  


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