Thimbles for Handicrafts

Dear users, dear authors,
do you have a thimble, or even several?
What do you use your thimble for?
Do you have any photos of your own thimble?

I only use a thimble when I quilt by hand; for that I have a leather one that flexes with my finger.

Goes along? What do you mean by that?

A regular thimble looks like this

and a leather one, like the one I use, looks like this

OK, thanks.
Are these your photos?
You know I might have to delete them if they’re not yours. So please be honest and let me know if they’re yours.

Yes, these are my photos. The one with the many thimbles is just a small selection from my collection, and I just took a picture of the leather thimble because I didn’t have a photo of it on my computer yet. Among the collection featuring mother-of-pearl is a thimble I found at a flea market in Westerland on Sylt. The thimble is made of silver, mother-of-pearl, and onyx—a gift from my husband for my 50th birthday. I was over the moon about it. My interest in collecting actually lies in antique, Art Nouveau, and older thimbles, but it’s very hard to find anything like that.

OK, thanks :-)
Would you like to share more photos of your collection?

Sure, I’ll show you my thimbles. I don’t have many, since I only buy one when I think, “Yes, I like that.” Some were gifts, especially the bone china ones—that’s a type of porcelain so thin you can almost see through it. As for my antique thimbles, I only have seven so far, because, as I mentioned above, they’re very hard to come by.

A lovely collection...
I especially like the metal ones—you can really see the signs of age on them—I love things with a patina.

I took a picture of my “Always Within Reach—Sewing Station.”
It doesn’t look that great, but it’s very practical.

The thimble is made of plastic and fits my finger perfectly; I often need it when, for example, I’m sewing parts of figures together. That’s when a little more force is required...

I think collecting thimbles is really fascinating. They’re such an everyday item, but in my opinion, they’re becoming increasingly rare. I don’t have one myself, though—instead, I end up with a pricked index finger after some sewing projects.

Claudia, you have a really unique one there. I’ve never seen one like that before.

Akela, anyone who has multiple sewing machines and an embroidery machine probably also has a soft spot for thimbles.

Thank you for showing us these little treasures.

Warm regards, Ina

Akela, that is such a lovely collection, with such beautiful motifs—they would all appeal to me too. Thank you so much for showing them.

I don’t use one myself either, but somewhere in my sewing box there’s still one made of plastic (that little plastic needle tube; the thimble was attached at the top with a tassel).
I think my mom still has a metal one from her mother.
In the past, people still did a lot of hand sewing or embroidered linens, so they needed one then too.

For some sewing projects, a thimble is really handy...it lets me push the thin needle firmly through the fabric...but I always have to go looking for it...because it’s so small...