I have a lovely hunk of russet rusty wool fabric. It’s a bit tweedy, there’s not a whole heck of a lot of it, and it’s been living in my stash for a very long time. (Like.. a good 20 yrs sort of long time.) Recently (for some values of recently), I finally realized that its a rather lovely size for a wrap at camping events, and it’s wool and warm and when one just wraps the whole length around themself one doesn’t have to end up with any bits of this lovely wool gone to waste. Perfect.

It’s also been at least a couple of years and I haven’t bothered to hem the two raw edges. <cough> It’s wool, so it’s hardly going to fray terribly, but seriously. A quick consideration of stitches, and single fold with herringbone came out as the winner. Wool thread, doubled for strength (it’s still terrribly fragile stuff), and off I go.

Except the damnned thread loves to break. I was using a good thick embroidery needle to give some space for the thread, but the wool abraded it something fierce. But wool singles are perfectly period for sewing? What gives?

Bone needle. A friend suggested I try the bone needle I have, just to see. It’s comparatively huge, but the woollen fabric doesn’t even blink at nudging aside and nudging back… and not a single break in the rest of the hem.

Tools for the job. They work! And now, my woollen wrap has its raw edges all finished, one less thing on the to do list!