How to choose the right needle for a sewing machine

Choosing a needle might sound very insignificant part of sewing. But be assured that it’s not. These needles can literally make or break the sewing process. Sewing with wrong kind of needles can make everything go wrong. So in this article we are going to talk about how to choose the right needle for your sewing machine.

You need different sewing machine for your best heavy duty sewing machines, for embroidery machines and serger sewing machines. Various factors must be kept in mind before choosing a needle. The must important two factors are type and size.

The text or the type of the textile decides or plays a major role in deciding the type of the needle. In the same manner, the thickness of the fabric determines the size of the needle.

Firstly, let’s get familiarized with parts of the needle :

The part of the needle that connects the machine with the flat back of it, is called a shank.

The determine of the needle size is called the blade. It decided what the size of the needle would be.“Shaft” is the name of the needle’s body.

The part which links the length of the shaft and also holds the needle thread is called the groove. The threads diameter that you are using should not take up 40% of the groove’s size.

The scarf is the name of the part of the needle which connects the hook smoothly and holds the thread in the sewing machine.

Various types of needles:

After getting familiar with the parts of the needle, let’s talk about types of the needle now. Now there are various kinds of needles, present in the market. But we are going to highlight the main 3 for convenience.

Universal needles : These needles carry a small but rounded tip. This type of needles are also called general-purpose needle as they are used in general purposes widely. These needles can be used on sturdy knits and wovens.

Jersey needles : These things tend to have a medium ballpoint tip which is especially designed keeping in mind knit fabrics so that it can slip in between the knit fibers parts of it doesn’t break or damage while the sewing is going on.

Stretch needles : These too have a medium ballpoint tip. But the unique faculty of these are the they have a special eye and scarf that is particularly designed for extremely stretchy elastics and other fabrics. Sewing a swimwear can be best done with a stretch needle.

Sizing of the needles

After we are done getting familiarized with the parts and types of the needles, then comes the most important part. That is the size of the needle. While the sewing itself is depended on the needles, deciding the right size of it becomes very important.

The reason being, wrongly sized needle can hamper your sewing and also can damage itself putting a break to the process.

So in order to understand the process of deciding the right size of the needles, we first have to understand the needle sizing systems. And the matters are not very easy and simple out there.

There are two needle sizing systems present in the world. They are respectively the American needle sizing system and the European. The size of the American needles generally ranges in between 8 and 19 whole the European counterpart’s size can vary from 60 to 120.

Basically the number denotes the size of the blade of the needle. The larger the number on the tagline gets, the bigger the blade gets. It is often seen that both sizing numbers are printed in the needle package. For instance generally it is written as 60/8 and 70/10.

But this is not the end of the numbering fiasco as far as the needle’s size is concerned. You have to get familiar with another number before concluding. There are home sewing machines which are classified as the 103/705H system. You can see this number printed in the label of the machine. This number is nothing else but a sign to reveal that this seeing machines are to be used in homes.

They also signifies that these machines should not be used in any industrial mechanisms. The number of  course denotes another technical usage. They denote that the needle has a flat shank and a scarf.

The Lifespan factor

The sewing machines have a very little lifespan. Only six to eight hours. So changing it is recommended for a smooth process.