What happens if you don’t have the right sewing machine needle? If you needle is to thin it can easily break. If you have the wrong point, the stitch won’t form properly. If the needle is too thick you can damage your fabric.
First… read through the different types of sewing machine needles to figure out what you need for your next project… based on the type of fabric.
Then, select the size needle for the weight of fabric you are sewing. Read About Sewing Machine Needles to find out what size needle you need.
Universal Point
The needle point is slightly round. This is an all-purpose needle used for sewing wovens and knits.
Ball Point
The point is rounder than a universal point. The ball point will slide between yarns of a knit without snagging.
Sharp / Microtex
This needle has a sharp point for perfectly straight stitches. This is ideal for silks, microfibers, and heirloom sewing.
Denim / Jeans
This needle has a very sharp point and a very stiff shank. Use this needle for stitching tight woven fabrics like denim, canvas and multiple layers of fabric.
Hemstitch / Wing
This needle has wide wings when you look at it… creating openwork stitching in tightly woven fabrics like linen and batiste. Use this needle for hemstitching and heirloom embroidery.
Leather
This needle’s point is wedge shaped… designed to pierce leather and suede creating small holes and strong stitching. Do not use this needle on wovens and knits.
Machine Embroidery
This specialty needle is designed with a special scarf and large eye to prevent shredding and breakage when sewing dense designs with rayon and embroidery threads.
Metallica
Use this needle when sewing with metallica threads. It’s large groove helps preven shredding and breakage of metallica threads and the large eye accommodates thicker thread. This needle also helps prevent skipped stitches.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
It would be great if you could put a bit in about what happens when needles become blunt or bent, & why,& also how long is the life of a needle. I actually know this, but thought it would be good for others,especially learners. It is a subject offen neglected.
May 21st, 2009 at 10:37 am
But, how do you know what size a needle is that has been in the sewing machine for some time? You take it out and look at it, dah….. Is it imbeded in that printing on the shank? If so one can not read that even with a magnifying glass.