Quiltingboard Forums - What is Your favorite thimble?

Quiltingboard Forums (https://www.quiltingboard.com/)

- Main (https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1/)

- - What is Your favorite thimble? (https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1/what-your-favorite-thimble-t157614.html)

I have purchased leather ones that I believe clover sells.
I have also made my own out of deer hide, if you know of any available, the belly is the best place, thin yet tough.
I have made a hundred or more and used up all the belly I could find.
now after selling them all, I am purchasing thimbles again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by leatheflea

I cant believe you all dont like the leather ones, I love mine, would be lost with out it. Theres a new leather one that my friend just bought last week, it looks just like a normal thimble, mine is a larger about up to your middle knuckle, anyway she loves this new thimble. Wish I could remember who made it, all I can remember is its solid black.

I have one of those black leather thimbles. I don't remember the brand either :roll: but I know I got it at Joann's and it comes in sizes. It's got a little metal disk in the tip, but I've found that the leather is sturdy, even though it's thin--half the time I miss the disk with the needle, but it still works well. I have several thimbles, but I think that one is probably my favorite.

I use it for hand-quilting; I don't know how the thimble use compares to applique. But it is very small and unobtrusive--I forget I'm wearing it half the time. It doesn't make me feel clumsy the way other thimbles do.

I splurged a few years ago and bought a Roxanne thimble and it was the best splurge ever. I always hated thimbles and have a box full of thimbles that I tried and didn't like. The Roxanne thimble changed all of that. There was a booth at a quilt show with a certified Roxanne "fitter" when I got mine, but there are fitting instructions on the web site.

When our son was little he would say, Mom your finger is in your pocket. My thimble was always on my finger he just thought it was another finger.

Thats our little guy in my avatar.

I have two Clover thimbles. One is a leather band with plastic over half the circle. The other is a traditional shape made of plastic-type material with a ridged metal cap.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MsEithne

Quote:

Originally Posted by roxannebcb

Boy - I am working on applique about 8 hours per day the last 2 weeks and I need to find a solution.

The big leather ones are too clumsy for me.
The plastic stick on thimble it ones don't seem to work very well.

Can anyone recommend the leather ones that stick on? Where to get them and which one to get? Or am I just not using it correctly. When I put a big thimble on I just stop using that finger. It's too clumsy.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions.
Roxanne

For regular sewing (not quilting) I use a tailor's thimble. It is shaped like a regular dome thimble but the top is missing and it is essentially like a very wide ring that fits around the tip of my finger. There's a rolled edge around the bottom of the ring and a smaller rolled edge around the top of the ring.

Mine has been used so long (over 40 years) that it has shaped itself into an oval shape that fits my finger exactly. I've heard of people using a rubber or rawhide mallet to deliberately shape a new thimble into an oval shape. I've never done it but my guess would be to place the thimble on a soft surface (like a folded towel), give it a gentle tap, try it on, take it off and give it another gentle tap, etc, until it fits.

I still have my childhood thimbles and none of them warped into shape. It must take more than 3 years or so of use to warp naturally. I don't remember ever feeling like my grown up thimble didn't fit but now when I try on a new thimble, I realise my old one is definitely more comfortable.

Once you have a thimble that fits, the only solution I know of is to wear it as much of the time as you can, no matter what you're doing. After awhile, it just feels natural on your finger.

Once you are used to using a thimble, you feel odd using a needle without one on. I don't think I could hand sew without a thimble at this point in my life, it would just feel too strange (and I hate getting needle pokes, even from the eye end of the needle).

I use a tailor's thimble too - I have several now, as I was worried about losing my only one. None of them fit as well as I would like, so I have a small amount of blutack in each, which just makes the inside a little tacky so they stay on nicely. I never thought of trying to make them oval!

I don't use one for the same reason; here are the things that I've heard. You can buy the little dots from the LQS to put on you finger tips and they are reusable; you can get the bandaid in the jar and put a few layers on your finger and this is also supposed to help. I'm sure others have great ideas as well.

I use metal ones -- I have several different sizes because my fingers shrink when I'm chilly. As a child, I was told to wear my thimble around the house for several days so it would feel like part of me. It worked and sometimes when I get up from quilting, I forget to take it off.

My very fav one is a cloisonne metal one I bought on a trip that has flying cranes outlined in gold threads on it. When I was trying them on the man asked what I was doing -- he had never sold one to actually be used before.
Mim

I like the little leather stick on dots.

I use different ones at different times. I guess my fingers swell and change. So I rotate them.