SEWING NEEDLE HISTORY OF SEWING NEEDLE A sewing needle is a long slender object with a pointed tip.

Thefirstsewingneedles were made of bone or wood; modern ones aremanufactured from high carbon steel wire, nickel- or gold platedfor corrosion resistance. The highest quality embroidery needlesare made of platinum. Traditionally, needles have been kept inneedle books or needle caseswhich have become an object of adornment.A needle for hand sewing has a hole, called the eye, at the non- pointed end to carry thread or cord through the fabric after the pointed end pierces it. Hand sewing needles have different namesdepending on their purpose. Needle size is denoted by a number on the packet. The convention for sizing is that thelength and thickness of a needle increases as the size number decreases. For example, asize 1 needle will be thicker and longer, while a size 10 will be shorter and finer. History of sewing needles A variety of archeological finds illustrate sewing has been present for thousand of year. Even earlier stone edge findsuch as the excavation on the island of eland at Ably,Sweden revel object such bone needle case. Ago 40,000yeas at the Kostenki side in Russia needle was found. Native of American was also known to use sewing needlesfrom natural sources. One such sources, the agava plant it provides both the needles & thread. The first sewing needlewas made of bone or wood. Modern one is manufacturedfrom high carbon steel wire, nickel or gold plated. Needles made from steel and in the final stages of manufacturing they are polished, especially in the area of the eye. In many cases they are then electroplated to givecorrosion resistance , resistance to mechanical wear,reduction of friction during sewing and a good overall performance, the material used for plating are chromiumor nickel. One requirement of surface finish of needles isthat they should not easily pick up any particles of synthetic fabric or synthetic sewing threads which are mayhave caused to melt as a result of excessive friction generated heat. It has been found that chromium plated needle resist the adherence of synthetic residue rather better than nickel plated needles do, despite the fact that chromium plated needles actually develop higher temperature during sewing than do non plated or nickel plated needles . 1) Shank 2) Shaft3) Groove4) Scarf 5) Eye6) Point SHANK: The upper thick part of a sewing machine needle is calledthe shank. This part of the needle is inserted in themachine. Home sewing machine needles are composed of aflat and a round side, to assist in always having the

needlein the correct position. Always refer to your sewing machine manual for thecorrect way to insert the needle in your machine.Industrial machine needles have a completely round shaftand the groove is used to know which direction to put anew needle in the machine. SHAFT: The shaft of a sewing machine needle is the area from the bottom of the shank to the point. The shaft contains thegroove, scarf, eye and point of the needle . GROOVE : A groove is in the side of the needle leading to the eye.The groove is a place for the thread to lay into theneedle. Use your fingernail and feel the groove of the needle onvarious sizes to understand why a different size threadwould be needed for heavier thread. SCARF: The scarf is a groove out of one side of the needle. Thescarf allows the bobbin case hook to intersect with theupper thread and form stitches. EYE : The eye of the needle carries the thread so the machinecan keep forming stitches.The size of the eye can vary and works in conjunctionwith the groove of the needle.Using a needle with an eye that is too small or too largecan cause your thread to shred and break. POINT: The point of the needle is the first contact with the fabricand responsible for how the needle pierces the fabric. The most common types of point are sharps, ballpointand universal. TYPES OF SEWING NEEDLES 1.Hand sewing needles. 2.Machine sewing needles. 3.Special purpose needles. 1.HAND SEWING NEEDLES :

Sharps are needles used for general sewing. Theyhave a sharp point, a round eye and are of mediumlength. The difference between sharps and other sewing needles can mainly be seen in their length. Embroidery needles, also known as Crewel needles,are identical to sharps but have a longer eye to enableeasier threading of multiple embroidery threads andthicker yarns. Betweens or Quilting needles are shorter, with asmall rounded eye and are usually used for makingfine stitches on heavy fabrics such as in tailoring,quilt making and other detailed handwork. Milliners' needles are longer than sharps, are usefulfor basting and pleating and are used inmillinery work. Easy- or Self-threading needles, also called Calyx-eyed Sharps , have a slot, rather than an eye for thethread. 2. MACHINE NEEDLES The most common machine needles for standardrunning stitch are universal &ball point needles, letter it isused for knits & woven material.

stretch needles Jeans needles denim needles leather needlesAre all fashioned to work well with material. Stretch needles The stretch needle is the Last resort needle whenBallpoint still leave skipped. Many people will notattempt Sewing lyecra & swimwear without a stretchneedle. JEANS & DENIM NEEDLES

Needle Introduction History Raw materials Manufacturing process inspection

types of needle SPECIAL PURPOSE NEEDLES Poor needle alignment and needle with an insufficientstraightness are often the cause of stitch skipping. They aggravate needle deflection and cause anirregular operational distance between needles andlopper. 2.Damage to throat plate This damage basically has the same cause as skipping,insufficient straight or deflected needles strike uponthe finger of the throat plate . 3.Needle breakage Lake in method of heat treatment as well as a carefuladoption of the needle design to the specific m/cfunction causes needle breakage . 4.Fabric damage High penetration resistance also reflects theoutstanding functional quality of needle & it damagesthe fabric . 5.Needle point damage A sharp needle point will be damaged rather quicklythrough the unavoidable dynamic impact with thelooper back. These in turn reduce the life of needle . 6.Thread breakage

: Ballpoints have a rounded point and are used for knitted fabrics. Sizes 5-10. Beading needles are very fine, with a narrow eye toenable it to fit through the centre of beads and sequins.They are usually long so that a number of beads can be threaded at a time. Sizes 10-15. Bodkin .This is a long, thick needle with a ballpointend and a large, elongated eye. They can be flat or round and are generally used for threading elastic,ribbon or tape through casings and lace openings. Chenille needles are similar to tapestryneedles, butwith large, long eyes and a very sharp point to penetrate close weave fabrics. Useful for ribbon embroidery. Sizes 13-26. Darning needles have a blunt tip and large eye,similar to tapestry needles, but are longer, with a yarndarners being the heaviest with very large eyes tothread yarn. Various types, with sizes ranging from 1-18. Doll needles are long and thin and are used for softsculpturing on dolls, particularly facial details. Size2.5"-7" long. Leather needles, also known as Glovers

needles havea triangular shaped point for piercing the leather without tearing it. Used on leather, suede, vinyl and plastic. Sizes 3/0-10. Sail maker needles are similar to Leather needles butthe triangular point extends further up the shaft of theneedle. Used for sewing thick canvas or heavy leather. Tapestry needles have a large eye and a blunt tip.They are used for working on embroiderycanvas,even-weavematerial and other loosely woven fabrics.The blunt tip allow the needle to pass through thefabric without damaging it. Double ended tapestryneedles, with the hole in the middle, are also availablefor the convenience of embroiderers who work withfabric mounted in a frame. Sizes from 13 (heaviest) to28 (finest). Tatting needles are long and are the same thicknessfor their entire length, including at the eye, to enablethread to be pulled through the double stitches used intatting. Upholstery needles are heavy, long needles that can be straight or curved. Used for sewing heavy fabrics,upholstery work, tufting and for tying quilts. Curvedneedles are used for difficult situations where astraight needle is not practical and are also used infabric box-making. Heavy duty 12" needles are usedfor repairingmattresses. Straight sizes: 3"-12" long,curved: 1.5"-6" long. DETERMINATION OF NEEDLE SIZE Understanding the numbers associated with sewingmachine Needles will help you make the correctchoice

and possibly solve machine problems. The American system uses 8 to 19, 8 being a fineneedle and 19 being a thick heavy needle. European sizes range from 60 to 120, 60 being a fineneedle and 120 being a thick heavy needle. Think of a fine sheer window curtain. You will needa fine needle such as a 8/60 needle. Using a 19/120would leave holes in the fabric. Now let's look at heavy upholstery fabric. If you wereto try and sew through upholstery fabric with a 8/60needle, it would bend or break. Using a 19/120 provides a needle strong enough to penetrate the fabricand carry a thread strong enough for this type of fabric Now let's look at a combination You have alightweight fabric but you want to do a heavytopstitching detail with heavy thread. Normally theheavy thread would call for you to use a heavy needlesuch as a 120/19, but that would leave holes in your fabric. Now you would experiment with a needle thatfalls somewhere in the middle such as an 80/12. You may find a needle size listed as 90/14 or 14/90.The order of the numbers does not effect the size. DEFECTS OF SEWING NEEDLES Sewing m/c needles are pushed to their capabilitylimits in the demanding high speed production of beautiful flat seam. It resulting in the high qualityrequirements of such needles.

1.Stitch skipping