Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Thimbles, Pt. 2

More thimbles!

Continuing our thimble discussion from last week, I tested out these two different thimble types while doing a bit over stitching over the weekend. I tested by doing a bit of English Paper Piecing, because that's when I tend to do the most damage to my fingertip.

The ring thimble didn't prove terribly useful, sitting just a bit further down on my finger than I use during my normal hand-sewing and embroidery activities. I suspect it could be handy if I was sewing thicker materials, like denim, where the metal combined with a sideways push would be very effective.

But the leather thimble! Wow! I'm a little sad for my bright pink thimble, but I'm pretty sure I'll be sticking with this leather one from now on. Mine is by Clover (though other brands make them as well), and comes in three sizes, which is very important since a lot us said last week that a poor fit was the first problem with thimbles in general. Some also said that metal thimbles made you unable to feel what you were doing and that was a deal-breaker. I'm sure we'll all agree that we can somehow tell by the way the needle feels on your finger if a stitch is right. This is the major advantage of the leather thimble, I could absolutely still feel my needle properly.

The only thing I could possibly call a disadvantage is that it will take a little time to break in properly; because the leather is new and stiff right now, it prevents natural finger-bending, which is pretty important. But normal use and a little extra scrunching will take care of that.

Leather thimbles aren't cheap, though I personally call that money very well spent, but I do remember once reading a tip (I have no idea where now!) that you could cut the top 1.5" off the finger of an old or thrifted leather glove. That won't give the same degree of extra padding, but it might be a good way to try it out.

Although I seem to have found the thimble of my dreams, there is one more thing I'd like to try out eventually, as suggested by blog and Facebook commenters. Several of you said that you don't use a thimble, but do protect your fingers by wrapping the stabbed / pushing areas with various types of medical tape. This won't effect the sense of touch you need for stitching. I couldn't believe the simple genius of this idea! I'd especially like to try it for the areas I stab into - it could be an easy fix for a painful problem!

Thanks everyone for participating in this discussion. I hope we've managed to find and share some good ideas for keeping your fingers safe!

10 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Both of the thimbles pictured are made by Clover and available all over the place. A search for 'leather thimble Clover' will bring you up a million places to get yourself one. But I'm sure other companies make types of each!

      Delete
    2. It looks so much nicer in this picture than any of the clover ones on amazon I didn't believe it could be the same!

      Delete
    3. I know what you mean - I was a little surprised it was so pretty when it arrived in the mail too!

      Delete
  2. The ring thimble might work better if you get a smaller size. Then it would be higher up on your finger, because it could not go down as far. ? I am not well educated about thimble sizes, because my thimbles (not rings) are not size specific, but that might be an idea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I should've said: this ring thimble is adjustable rather than sized, and with much prodding, I managed to get it just about right for me. Right along my first joint, if that makes sense. It happens that I just don't tend to push there, but I could see how you might in cases other than what I happened to be sewing this weekend. That said, I just can't get over how much I love the leather thimble! :)

      Delete
    2. (I posted above as well) If you get a non adjustable one that fits in the right place, there would not be as much fiddling. Unfortunately, they likely do them in "sizes" just like regular ones, and only some people could find one that fits...... Sigh..... Things like that make me hate the industrial revolution. Hey! How about we all form a stitchers colony on Mars and insure that everyone can find a thimble that fits, instead of having to rely on outsourced mass-production sized thimbles!?!? Yeah, good. I'll call NASA.... (snicker)

      Delete
  3. Have you ever tried a coin thimble? I love it. Very similar to your leather one, but on one side it had a small circle of metal attached. I find it really useful when working with really heavy fabrics or leathers. Then when doing normal stitching that requires a thimble I just turn it round and used the leather side. Think they were made by Primm.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yes, Clover makes a version like that as well! I wasn't sure about whether that would be useful for the various types of stitching I usually do, so I went with the simpler version just to test it out. I didn't know if I'd like the leather thimble at all when I started this experiment! But generally, it seems like you can't go wrong by adding an extra bit of protection to a tool I know love! :)

      Delete
  4. I have always been a little leery of the leathe thimble needles, but you have sold me. The coin needle that Flaming Nora speaks of sounds very interesting. I'm off to Google.

    ReplyDelete

Hi there, thank you for stopping by &Stitches. The blog is no longer updated, but you can still explore the archive of posts. Because the blog is no longer active, new comments have been disabled. Thank you for understanding. :-)

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.