Long ago, there was a seamstress who was more skilled than any other with needle and thread. She even boasted that she could beat the devil himself in tailoring skills.
But that’s just the kind of talk devils like to hear. They pin back their dirty, furry ears in hell all day and night, and when someone swears by the devil, they know exactly where to go to chase the unfortunate person. And so one of them came up from the depths of hell to the surface to measure his strength with the plain-spoken seamstress.
He came rushing to her and he was about to make up the rules of the race. But the seamstress tried to get out of the whole devilish thing: “Mr. Hellboy, I don’t know what anyone told you, but I’m not up to any sewing contests.”
“We heard you very well down there. You wanted to have a sewing contest with the devil, now show off. If you lose, I’ll take you to hell,” the devil was not to be deterred.
So there was nothing left to do but get on with it. The rules were set quickly. Whoever sews the shirt first wins.
As for the measuring and cutting, the devil was not far behind the seamstress. But when it came to the needle and thread, there was a major snag. Well, not for the seamstress, who put the thread through the eye of the needle before you could say Jack Robinson, cut a piece of thread and made a knot at the end. That was her daily bread. She set to sewing with skill.
When the devil finally managed to push the thread through the little eye of the needle, he decided to save time on the next thread and just thread the whole spool. But that was just too much for him. He had to go around the cottage three times to make each stitch. And he had forgotten to make a knot first, so he ran around the cottage in vain without making a single stitch. In the end, he got all tangled up in the thread together with the cottage.
Meanwhile, the seamstress had finished the shirt! She was relieved that she had won, and decided not to boast ever again. Then she went to see her rival’s creation. And then she saw what a butter-finger the devil was – he hadn’t sewed a thing!
The devil turned red and fell back to hell in shame. He’s been terribly careful not to get into any more competitions with that seamstress ever since. His clumsiness, however, remained long in the memory of the people of the village. As soon as they saw a clumsy person, they would say he was like the devil who had to go round the cottage three times and still hadn’t done a stitch.
