Hey, everybody!
It’s Rob from Man Sewing and have I got a quick tip for you.
That’s right.
Today is needle knowledge time.
And now, I must warn you, this is my personal opinion based on a lot of fact and a lot of
experience.
So, here we go.
And I want you to all follow along close.
I’m going to try to give it to you slow, but you know I’m excited about this kind
of stuff.
And I’m excited because I truly believe needles are just like ice cream.
That’s right.
We all, in the textile world, love our needles, so, therefore, we all also must love ice cream.
Now, when you’re buying a needle, like ice cream, you’re getting two things: different
flavors and different scoop sizes.
So, let’s talk about what the sizing means.
So, here’s a fun, cool, super giant needle.
This does not actually fit in your sewing machine; I wish it did.
Oh and, by the way, if you’re watching Facebook and Instagram, you saw the cool wooden needles
that were out there that I tried to carve for this shoot, but they wouldn’t let them
on the airplane or strapped to the wing like missiles, I guess.
Anyway, moving on.
So, here is a needle numbering system.
And often you’re going to see like 80/12, 90/14, 100/16, and what that really is, is
the 100 is the metric system and the 16 is our U.S. standard.
So, you’re always going to see those two sets of numbers travel together: 80 and 12,
90 and 14, and so on.
Now, the bigger the numbers, the bigger the needles are going to be.
The bigger the needle, the bigger the features.
And the features are kind of like flavors.
So, let’s talk about some of the parts of our needle.
This is really cool stuff, actually.
You wouldn’t believe how much engineering goes into needles.
You have on the front what is called the curve.
Now, the curve or the front groove is where the thread lies as the needle is piercing
through your project.
You have the eye.
Hopefully all of you have no problem threading those, right?
On the back of the needle, a very cool feature here, this is called the scarf.
And in the scarf what happens is, as your needle penetrates, the hook passes behind
it so that hook fits in nice and tight, right there, and picks up the loop of thread that
forms the stitch.
And then we have the eye of the needle and we have the tip of the needle.
Now, needles are kind of divided.
There’s, there’s, gosh, I think seven or eight different styles of needles that
I can think about off the top of my head, and they’re very project specific, but I
want to kind of try to teach you the different names needles have to offer.
So, let’s start with a universal needle, for example.
A universal needle has kind of a medium-sized eye and the eyes come in two kinds of shapes:
circles or big, long ovals.
The smaller the eye, the more wear and tear on the thread; the longer the eye, the less
wear and tear on the thread, right?
So, with a universal needle you have kind of a medium-sized, kind of a rounded eye and
pretty much a very rounded and blunt tip.
The tip of the needle penetrates the fiber.
It doesn’t cut the fabric, it just separates the weave.
So, the more aggressive the tip, the faster it penetrates the fiber, right?
So, let’s talk about some of the bigger eye needles out there.
There, and I’m going to try to go up in size, we’ve got embroidery.
Now, an embroidery needle has got a very sharp tip and about a medium oval eye, penetrating
lots of dense area with your embroidery machines.
You’re sewing a lot of compacted area, right?
Then you’ve got your quilting needles.
Now, your quilting needles have a little bit more of a rounded, not quite as sharp of a
tip, and a larger eye.
Sometimes that larger eye will actually cause some skipped stitches because the thread is
riding the top of the eye of the needle.
And your topstitch needle is your biggest eye and your bluntest tip.
Now, the topstitch needle is really designed for your cool, decorative threads so you can
be sliding those big threads in and out of the eye of that needle over and over again
without shredding the thread, right?
But often it’s a very large eye if you’re doing free motion machine quilting.
Now, the two needles I actually do most of my quilting with are none of the three I just
mentioned.
But I use denim needles and sharps needles with my free motion quilting, actually.
Let me explain why.
The denim needle has a very aggressive tip and a very strong eye because it’s meant
for going through denims and twills and canvas.
And when I’m machine quilting through my fusible web, that density really pounds on
the eye of the needle, wearing out the eye quickly.
So, one of my tricks is using a denim needle when fusible, like batik applique, is involved.
That’s a nice trick to have out there.
And then the other needle, my personal favorite, is a sharps needle.
Now, a sharps needle has got a crazy aggressive tip.
It’s like a patriot missile.
It was designed to go through silk and taffeta without catching a thread or snagging, so
it penetrates quickly, but then it also has a very small eye and that small eye allows
less movement of your thread.
And I also do a lot of fine cotton thread and polyester threads when I’m sewing, so
that’s why the sharps needle works well for me.
Most importantly, though, I just want you to understand the different variety of needles
and understand that a specific project could really require a specific needle and just
changing that needle for the job is so important; it will make a world of difference.
And do not forget, you should be changing your needle almost every 10 full hours of
sewing.
And I always start a new project with a new needle.
So, I’m hoping that quick tip gotcha right between the eye of the needle here at Man
Sewing.