Thimble Day
Chalk Bag Sewing Kit
Everything you need to hand sew your own chalk bag and fix the threadbare knees of your favorite climbing pants.
Scott E. high on Sin Nombre (10+) in the Eastern Sierra.
The Story
I constructed my first chalk bag from a used white sheet and a fleece blanket from the local thrift store. To firm up the rim, I used a strip of plastic from a gallon milk jug.
I called the bag Poverty. I wasn’t in actual poverty, more of a spontaneous, road trip, stretching of the funds, kind of minimalism. But I found the process of sewing by hand meditative and rewarding.
The truth is, these days our attention span is more compressed than a low start on a Kansas boulder problem. It was with gaining back some of this lost attentiveness in mind that Thimble Day was born. Mastery of the stitch takes focus, 10,000 perfect stitches take time, and handcrafting anything takes a bit of both.
This new mindfulness, that is the ability to focus on the task at hand without random thoughts creeping into your mind, will filter into all aspects of your life—from your work to your climbing.
So, take a thimble day, recover, focus your mind, make something cool.
P.S. Don’t buy this kit if you need a chalk bag for tomorrow’s outing unless you buck the stitches out with a sewing machine—that kind of defeats the purpose though.
Pattern
The pattern is pre-cut right down to the grommet that you pull the drawstring through. There are lots of color choices to mix and match the main body and the bottom to become a chalk bag you’ll enjoy wearing. But remember, we are not selling you a chalk bag, we are selling you the feeling you get from making something yourself. “I made that,” isn’t often something you can buy.
You Supply the Patience
Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will this chalk bag. The smaller and more even the stitching, the more beautiful and durable your bag will be. The ballistic quality of the materials and impenetrable seams will determine your creation's longevity. Every stitch should be as deliberate as every move on your last notable send. Don’t rush it.
There will be times when you what to quit and throw this kit in the garbage. My advice is to just be with the discomfort, as this, too, shall pass.
Accoutrements
This kit also includes two fine German sewing needles, pins to hold your work together while you stitch, a whole spool of high quality thread, a seam ripper in case you get ahead of yourself and screw up, directions, some witty writing, and of course, the all important thimble.—to protect the tip, shredded from days of crimp crushing, of your middle finger,
A Funny Story
I stepped out of the truck into the soft dirt and gravel of the frontage road. We parked perpendicular, and we were the first to put a car in P.
“There are a lot more people here than I remember,” I said.
“Yeah, it get pretty packed these days,” said Joe.
“It used just to get packed on holidays.”
“Now, it’s packed just about every weekend.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“For the local coffee shops, yes.”
“For finding some peace, not so much.”
“Yeah, the Happy Boulders are not a place you’re gonna find yourself.”
As the sun lit up the eastern skyline in a cool blue, we walked up to the most famous boulder in the bunch, the Happy Boulder itself, and dropped our supplies. Not standard equipment for a day of bouldering, for sure, but we weren’t there to wrestle pebbles. Our pile of gear consisted of a short length of rope, seven bolt hangers, seven quickdraws, and a wad of nail-less hanging putty, the kind of stuff you might use to hang a Beyonce poster on a bare dorm room wall.
We giggled and then got down to business. I stuck some of the putty onto the back of one of the hangers and attached it to the boulder at head height. It stayed. I reached down, grabbed a quick draw, and clipped the carabiners to the bolt hanger. It too remained put.
Joe put on the next hanger just two feet higher than the first, and in minutes we had the entire fifteen feet of the Hulk (V6) turned into an over-bolted sport climb. Joe hung the rope and completed the ruse. We loaded our packs and scrambled up into the talus of the west rim to wait. Our wait wasn’t long.
A lone boulderer approached from the south sporting nothing but a pair of shoes and a sun-bleached chalk bag. Older and old school, the grizzled crag master looked at the apparent shit show that was the Hulk and said, “What the fuck.”
An enormous pressure built in my belly as the giggles wanted out. Tears rolled around my pinched eyes and more than a few drops of piss wet my Hanes. The boulderer stormed off further up the canyon muttering under his breath.
“We’re gonna get our asses beat,” I said. We ran down to the boulder, grabbed the rope, and pulled. All of the hangers and putty pulled off with the quickdraws. We stuffed the gear into a bag and ran down the hill back to the car laughing all the way.
Thimble Day launched in 2019 with the goal
of helping climbers focus.
Sewing is meditative. Focus, take a few deep breaths, make a stitch. If your mind wanders (and it will) to your latest project or send, or that breakfast burrito you ate this morning, bring it back to the thimble.
Money Back Guarantee
No fuss here. There’s one way to find out if hand-crafted is for you and that is to just try it. We want you to give it a whirl and want that experience to be everything we say it is. But, if you do try and find yourself unsatisfied with the goods then we want to make it right. Keep the product and we’ll refund the cost, no questions asked...just don't be a jerk.
Send an email and we'll keep you posted on new Thimble Day products!
Thimble Day
3594 Gerkin Road
Bishop, CA 93514
Phone: (760) 937-6073
jerry.oser@gmail.com
