Sewing Machine Needles!

our good friend, Joe... and owner of Capanno's Pizza on Ladson Road in Summerville, SC was nice enough to send over this reference guide!    it is well worth spending some time to look at it... and perhaps keep for future reference.

 personally, I like a universal 90/14 for everyday projects and use Coats & Clark dual duty "all purpose" thread ... I do recommend that you have a supply of various size needles on hand. check the back of the package of Singer needles for appropriate sizes for your specific fabric you're working with ... sometime no matter how many times you re-thread your machine, the only thing that gets it working is a new needle!

1.  Needle Basics.  A package of 80/12 universal needles will get you through most sewing projects and 75/11 and 90/14 embroidery needles will do likewise for machine embroidery; however, proper needle selection will help you get the best results with different fabrics, stabilizers, and threads.  Always remember:   

Match the needle point to the fabric, needle size to thread size, and use the smallest needle consistent with the fabric.

a.         Selection.  Universal needles perform adequately on most sewing tasks but don’t perform any extremely well.  All other needles are designed to provide best results for specific tasks, so needle selection is pretty much up to you and must meet your needs and expectations.  Remember that:

·         It is hard to differentiate between similar needles, but using the wrong needle can damage the bobbin hook, throw off timing, lead to puckering, break or shred thread, punch holes in fabric, or leave a project that is short of expectations.

·         The size of the needle and eye changes top thread tension and the needle point design changes the way the fabric is penetrated.

·         Sewing machine manufacturers provide samples of needles that they know work well in their machines, and it’s always safe to follow such recommendations.

·         You may need to change needles when changing fabric, thread, backing, or even different digital designs, and it is a good idea to keep detailed “needle” notes.

b.  Needle Replacement Criteria.  There is considerable guidance on when to replace sewing machine needles and few provide supporting logic.  They actually last from one minute to several months and their service life ends when the needle is damaged, breaks, or simply wears to the point where it doesn’t function as intended. 

·         One problem with determining service life is that your eyes and fingers can’t normally tell if your needle is worn or damaged.  Worse, you probably don’t know what a new needle is supposed to be like in the first place.

  Fabric, stabilizer, thread, sewing speed, feed rates, needle pressure, fabric coatings, type of needle used, etc. all impact needle service life, no one knows what you are using, so you have to figure out needle service life based on your own and often varying sewing or embroidery conditions.

o       Another problem is selection of service life criteria.  Do you use hours of sewing time, number of garments sewn or serged, stitches formed, designs sewn-out, or linear feet sewn or serged?  I chose hours for sewing, number of designs for embroidery, and number of garments for sergers. 

o       You see needle change recommendations for 4, 6, 8, and 10 or more hours of sewing.  Schmetz recommends 4-6 hours and 8 is popular.  My advice is to replace home sewing machines after about 8 hours of stitch time, 10 very large designs on embroidery machines, and after 12 garments on sergers or whenever there is any doubt that the needle is not functioning as designed.    Keep it simple and remember 8 – 10 – 12.

·         Conversely, you can forget all of this, use your own criteria or none at all, but the 8 – 10 - 12 is fairly easy.  Chances are that you’ll break it before it wears out.