It's about sewing machine needle points
(Needle-parts: courtesy of Wikipedia)
A couple of interesting facts about sewing machine needles in Q&A
While I was working at an organic fabric store for several years, I met so so many sewing lovers. There were young mothers who just started learning how to sew, there were students from nearby fashion schools, there were independent fashion designers and tailors, almost-professional-self-taught hobby sewists. Both young and old, men and women. It was an extremely interesting period of time for me to learn how different people's tastes are, how much and how less people's knowledges about fabrics and sewing techniques are, how flexible or how particular their search for sewing materials are. One of the most frequently asked questions was about needles. Needles are so small but sooo important. In this blog post I tried to gather the questions and give the as much as answer I could give. These basic facts are also very interesting and really good to know, even though you have never actually wondered or questioned about details of sewing machine needles until today. Have a moment to read this article and get to know your tool little deeper.
Q: Do we need to use different types of needles for woven fabrics and stretchy fabrics?
A: Yes!
First of all, we need to understand there are different kinds of needle points. There are special point needles for leather and denim, but Universal, Stretch and Ballpoint are probably the three most commonly used needles.
Universal normal point: has normal pointy tip, not super pointy like leather or denim needles. The most commonly used needle for stitching woven fabrics.
Stretch: has rounded point, used for sewing stretch wovens and knitted fabrics.
Ballpoint (Jersey): has more rounded tip than stretch needle, suitable for very stretchy fabrics.
(Needle-points: courtesy of Wikipedia)
As you can see in the image above, both Stretch and Ballpoint (Jersey) needles have rounded points. They are designed to push the fibers of the fabric away to the side, push through between the yarns instead of piercing it (as universal needles do), to prevent the fibers from getting damaged.
Broken or damaged fibers can cause holes on the stretchy fabrics. That is why it is important to use the right needle for each project.
Q: How do we understand different needle size systems?
A: Here are some important facts of numeric system
1. The smaller the numbers the finer the needle for sewing machine needles. Don't get confused, the size system works the opposite for hand sewing needles.
For finer fabric: Smaller number sewing machine needles
For heavier fabrics: Bigger number sewing machine needles
2. Sewing machine needles are sized in metric and imperial numbers.
12 / 80
Imperial number (American system)
Metric number
3. The size of a needle is calculated by its diameter, thus a 80 needle is 0.8mm in diameter.
4. The common household sewing machine needles you can use are No.7/55 to No.18/100.
The most common sizes are 12/80 and 14/90, they are usually called “universal size”. When a new sewing machine is purchased, it normally comes with needle in these sizes.
7/55
8/60 · · · · · Very light fabrics (such as silk)
9/65
10/70
11/75 · · · · · Lightweight Fabrics
12/80 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Universal size: to purchase click HERE
13/85 · · · · · Medium light to medium heavy fabrics
14/90
16/100
18/110 · · · · · Heavy to very heavy fabrics (upholstry, thick denim etc.)
20/120
Make sure that you are using the right sort of needle in the right size. If the needle still breaks, causes puckering or snagging, the problem might be that the tip of the needle is blunt. In that case you need to chage it to a new needle.
Tipp: can't tell which needle is on your sewing machine right now? One great way to avoid mixing up your neddles is to color the flat part with different colors of nail polish for each size if the needles have no color marks to differentiate the sizes.
Q: What are the grooves (dent) on the needle for?
A: There are usually two grooves on a sewing needle. A long groove which runs through from the shoulder to the needle eye in the middle on the front side of the needle, and a short groove which is on the other side of the needle between the tip and the needle eye.
A sewing thread is placed in the long groove during sewing to reduce the friction between fabric and thread. Therefore it is better to use the right size thread for the needle. A short groove helps the thread to create a loop.
Q: How often should we change the needles?
A: Your needle should be changed when it’s blunt or bent, and also when it’s a wrong type or a wrong size.
It is generally suggested to change needles every 6-10 sewing hours.
Check once in a while if the tip is not blunt or bent. If the condition of the needle and the sewing quality is totally fine, then they can be used little longer than the suggested life cycle.
