The Tailor Who Sold His Soul to the Devil is a Mexican fairy tale

Fairy tale

A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...

 collected by Vicente T. Medoza and Virginia Rodriguez Rivera de Mendoza in Piedra Gorda.

It is Aarne-Thompson type 1096, The tailor and the ogre in a sewing contest.

Synopsis

The Devil offers a tailor a bargain; the tailor says he can have his soul if he beats him in a sewing contest. The Devil uses a long thread, which tangles; the tailors uses a short one and wins.

Expression

The story concludes with the observation that this is why mothers warn their daughters against long threads by calling them "the Devil's thread."