Mind your fingers....

I think I drive most sewers crazy. Mostly because when they see me sew I don’t use a thimble. Part of the reason why is my finger gets too hot, the thimble gets in my way and I have trouble finding ones I like. I have a few, plastic, metal, all covering, tip covered, band, but all come off after about a minute. I just don’t like them, if I have been sewing most of the day or am working with really tough fabric I will use them but over all I find them a nuisance.

It is hard to date when the first thimbles or “thymel” came into use but they have been around for centuries. Some thimbles were bands and evidence of them has been found at Vesuvius in Italy, though are known to be much older than that. They were more for courser materials when you had to push the needle with the side of your finger rather than the tip. The ones that covered the whole tip of your finger were more common among housewives and were widely in use by the 14^th century (1300s).

During the Renaissance period pewter was one of the most common metals for making thimbles. Most were hand struck with small dimples along them hand punched. They also could have been cast. They were/are decorated with designs such as flowers, dogs chasing boars, and trees they were something every housewife had in their sewing basket. Some wives even had cases to put them in. Today they are as much a collector’s item as a useful tool.

So here is to protecting our fingers, or not as the case maybe.