School: Gráinseach Ailt an Chaistín (St. Johnston)
- Location:
- Saint Johnstown, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Seán Ó Seanacháin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1106, Page 41
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- (continued from previous page)work in their own homes. The Tailors and dressmakers do not stock any cloth. The people do buy the cloth and bring it to the tailors or dressmakers to make whatever garments they require. Yarn is not spun and cloth is not made in the locality. A spinning wheel and a hand loom are as rare in the parish of Taughboyne as "holy water in an orange hall."
"The long thread of a lazy tailor".
The devil once said that he could sew better than the tailor. The devil put a very long thread in his needle to save time in threading the needle but every time he sewed a stich it caught on his knees. The tailor used a short thread and sewed the stitches rapidly and won the prize. The devil would not go near a tailor because the tailor defeated him in the contest.
The tailor uses scissors, needle, a thimble without a bottom, a goose, an ironing board and a sewing machine.
Shirts are made in every home. The cloth used is called flannelette. A strong dark grey flannel is also used for making hard-wearing every-day shirts. There is a story current in the locality about a woman who cut nettles and put them in water to ret and in every detail subjected them to the same processes as flax. Then she scutched the nettles and obtained a beautiful fibre from them like silken threads. She spun the fibre into yard on the spinning wheel and out of the yarn she knitted a beautiful shawl which lasted(continues on next page)
