The Thimble

 

This may not be word for word how my grandma told this. 

“When I was three, I learned to sew. When my Uncle came, I was sitting up in the corner of the cabin sewing doll clothes. I had been sewing all day and had a big blister in the palm of my hand where I had been pushing the back of the needle through. My uncle looked at me and said ‘That girl needs a thimble!’ So he took me into town and found the smallest thimble they had.” 

She held out her hand to reveal a very old, very small thimble.  The shiny finish was worn dented. A hole was actually worn through in one spot. It had obviously been well used and treasured. It had journeyed far in its over 60 years of travel. 

This was all part of my grandma teaching me to sew. That day she took me to Woolworth’s for a thimble of my own. They had a case with little drawers. The helpful lady pulled out smaller and smaller sizes for me to try on. We left with the smallest size they had, still bigger than Grandma’s old friend.

And she taught me. I was 8 when she taught me to use a machine and to hand stitch a neat hem. I learned to read a pattern package, pin and cut, mark and sew darts years before my mandatory 7th grade sewing class. 

I still use all these skills and more. I find peace in hand stitching, but appreciate the usefulness of a machine for basic seams. I do still have and use the 1947 Singer Featherweight she taught me on. 

I have accepted that I will never have her level of expertise. When her kids were growing, she would look through the latest pattern books and make her own patterns. She made most of my school clothing for the first 4 or 5 grade. Comforters she made warmed all our beds. Her  friends paid her to make evening gowns from luxury fabrics. All on that same, simple machine. 

Her sewing lessons and life lessons continue to shape and inform me. Still, when I put on a thimble, something in my brain tells me I no longer have the use of that finger. I can imagine her looking at my naked digit and sighing, and see the love in her eyes still shining. No matter how often I worried and disappointed her, she always just kept loving me.