Constructing a thimble

Sewing technique continues to interest me as a research topic. The public library has pick-up service so I’m getting books again, but I’m also modern enough to embrace YouTube. One of my favorite sew-ists there is Bernadette Banner, who strongly recommends a leather thimble for faster hand sewing. Why not make one?, thought I.

Step 1: Rummage around your coffee table until you find, hiding between two knitting magazines, the 35-cent scrap of leather you bought to use with your supported spindle for cotton spinning, and fish an envelope out of the paper recycling.

Step 2: Position the top joint of your needle-wielding (presumably dominant) hand’s middle finger on the edge of the envelope and awkwardly trace around it using your non-dominant hand with a pencil. Cut this out of the paper, trace it twice on the leather with a pencil, and cut out the two pieces of leather.

Step 3: Your leather needs holes evenly-spaced along all but the bottom edge. Try poking unsuccessfully with an unbent paper clip before you remember you have a small awl. Locate that mini-screwdriver set you got from the customer gift bin at the gravestone-maker’s shop in Germany as a kid (when your grandmother worked there and knew how proud you would be to own tools) and get the awl. Position the awl at the edge of your leather, notice just before disaster that your laptop has been underneath your work this whole time, and swap that out for a cutting mat. Position the awl again and poke holes evenly-spaced along the edge of each piece.

Step 4: Stack the 2 pieces with the desired outside sides on the outside and sew together with a whip stitch. I used heavy-duty polyester button thread and sewed it through twice at the beginning and end sets of holes. The needle’s eye needs to fit through the holes; the needle itself can be sharp- or blunt-tipped. You may need pliers to pull the needle through; mine went OK with a good push with a quilter’s thimble.

Step 5: Ta-da! Wait, you avocado… all these months of sewing, and you’ve forgotten the importance of seam allowances? This thimble fits your pinky. (And you didn’t use a mini-tripod so the photos are blurry.)

Step 6: Make a new paper pattern, this time adding a narrow seam allowance. Cut 2 fresh pieces of leather, poke holes, and sew together. It took me only 20 minutes to make the first thimble, and the second went even faster.

Step 7: Ta-da! (And the tripod got a clear photo of your bethimbled finger in the evening light.)

The thimble works well when I push a needle with the flat of my finger. I’m having trouble with the top — too much leather in the way — so I need to rip the seams, trim the top leather, and sew it together again.

Don’t have scrap leather? You can remove the leather patch off the back of a pair of blue jeans (hey, they don’t pay you to advertise for them, do they?) and use that for your thimble.

This weekend should have been Stitches West 2021. I haven’t missed it since the first time I went in 1999. Boo. It’s OK. I’m not missing it alone and I have lots of yarn and fiber in the house. I do truly miss the 3-day yarn party with like-minded friends. We’ll have to have an extra big one when we once again are able.