Needles and Thread – Tips & Facts

A favorite past time of mine (some might day “time waster”) is looking into how the things we use in our day to day lives came into existence. Needles and thread are two of those things I’ve recently found myself researching. You can’t make a quilt without these two most important tools! Since quilting is a big part of my life, I thought it would be fun to look into these two items and share what I found. I will cover some facts about each and then some tips based on my quilting experience. So let’s go.

Needles

Hand Sewing Needles: There’s research out there that claims the oldest known hand sewing needles range from 25,000 to 60,000 years ago. Wow! The oldest found in an archeological dig was made of bone. Other materials used for needles over the years were thorns, fish bones, and wood. Of course today, most needles today are made from high carbon steel wire with plating made from nickel or gold to prevent the needle from corroding. 

Here’s an cool video on how needles are made:

Hand Needles Tip #1: Can you use a needle indefinitely? If you are a person who does a lot of appliqué and had sewing, the answer is “no”. Needles wear down even if you can not see that with your eye alone. Since you can not see the wear, most sewers say to count the hours of sewing with it. 10 hours seems to be the amount of time settled upon… but who can keep track of the hours? Especially if you sew a bit here and there. If you find the needle is harder to push through the piece you are stitching, it’s likely losing it’s sharpness and that’s a good indication that it is time to change your needle. Also, if you see a bend in a needle that’s supposed to be straight, that’s another sign to get a fresh needle.

Hand Needles Tip #2: If threading a needle is difficult for you, I definitely recommend a needle threader. Saves a lot of headaches. However if you do not have a needle threader, here are a few tips of mine to make threading easier.

• Cut the end of the thread at a 45 degree angle.
• Wet the tip of the thread by dipping a finger in some water and damping the end. This helps to prevent frays (which you usually can’t see with the naked eye) that will catch on the edge of the needle eye and keep the thread from going in. I’ve also wet the eye of the needle with my fingertips. I don’t know why that helps coax the thread through the eye, but it works!
• Because of the way the eye of the needle is stamped in production, one side is rougher and another is smoother (again not seen with the naked eye). So if you are having trouble threading from one side, flip the needle over and try threading the eye from the other side.

Of course you can save yourself a lot of headaches and spend a little more money on self-threading needles.

Sewing Machine Needles: These needles have a shank, which is the fatter area on the needle, that hand sewing needles do not have. The shank is the part clamped by the sewing machine’s needle holder. It tapers down to an eye at the end. Another big difference from a hand needle is this needle has a groove that “hugs” the thread as the needle passes into the fabric you are stitching.

Machine needles come in different sizes for different weights of fabric. You’ll see a number like this on the package: 80/12. The numbers represent European (larger number) and American sizing. Needles with lower numbers (9-12) are for lighter and medium weight fabrics and needles with higher numbers (14-18) are for heavier weight fabrics. Needles for standard stitching have a slightly rounded end and are considered universal. There are also quilting needles for machine quilting that have a delicate, slightly sharper point than the universal to go through the three layer.

Sewing Machine Needle Tips:

Tip #1: A good rule of thumb is to change the needle after you finish piecing a large project or a few smaller projects like table runners. If you sew with a needle that should be changed, you can cause damage to your fabric. A dull or damaged needle can snag fabric, make a hole, and also break your thread. If you hear a “punching” sound or see snags as you stitch, it’s definitely time to change the needed.

Tip #2: If you have not used up the needle but need to change it to do something else, put the partially used needle back in the case with the flat part of the shaft facing up so you remember which is used.

Tip #3: This one is a tip just for fun … if you do not have a built in needle threader on your machine, place a bright piece of paper behind the needle when threading it. This will help you to see the eye of the needle better.

Threads

Know About Thread Weights: I recommend 100% cotton 50w thread for stitching your pieces. I like to use Aurifil 100% cotton 50wt. I have found that this thread creates the least amount of lint build up as opposed to other threads I have used. 

Thread weight is important to know because different weights of thread perform differently. The smaller the thread weight number, the thicker the thread. As the numbers go up, the threads get finer. 60 to 90 weight thread is often used for machine embroidery. 100 weight, extra-fine polyester thread is often used for invisible machine appliqué. How do you know what weight your thread is? Most spools will have a number on it that looks like this:

That fraction, 50/2, tells you that the thread is 50 weight and 2 ply. 2 ply and 3 ply threads are good for hand or machine stitching. For machine quilting, some quilters like to go up to a finer thread so the stitches are les noticeable. However, if you like to see your machine quilting stitches, you can stick with the 2 or 3 ply 100% cotton.

Know How the Thread is Wound: Have you ever experienced problems with your thread and not know why? Here’s a handy little fact: the way the thread is wound onto the spool determines how you should use it on your machine. Most sewing machines these days come with horizontal and vertical spool holders. Certain types of spools are meant to be used on one or the other.  Using the spool on the correct holder allows the thread to unwind as it should.

First, there are spools of thread that are cross wound. Look at your spool. If it looks like the photo below, that is cross wound:

Notice the zig-zag look of the thread.

Tip: These spools are best used on the horizontal spindle that allows the thread to unwind from the top. Secure the spool with the spool pin (see photo below) that comes with the machine, making sure it’s snug so thread does not get caught between the spool and spool pin. That could cause tension problems.

The other way thread is wound is horizontally onto the spool. These are called stacked threads.

Tip: These spools perform best on a vertical spool holder so the thread unwinds at a 45 degree angle. This keeps the thread from getting caught in the space between the thread and spool holder, causing tension problems.

Well, that’s it for this week. I hope you learned a bit about needles and threads. There’s probably so much more information out there but what I shared here are the things I think are important to know when it comes to quilting.

Do you have any tips or facts about needles and threads you’d like to share? Feel free to do so in the comments or ask any questions you may have. I’ll enter you into a drawing for my new quilt pattern, Star Trail:

The drawing will be on Monday, March 11th. Good Luck! **We have a winner! Congrats, Mary Borocz!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne