A long thin tool with a pointed tip which is used for sewing purpose is known as a sewing needle.  In ancient times, needles were made out of bones or wood, but in today’s world a sewing needle is manufactured from carbon steel. Ideally, a needle that is used for sewing has a pointed tip and contains a hole on the other side. This hole is known as “eye” and is used to carry the thread. The pointed end pierces the material that is to be stitched and the blunt end pulls the thread out of the fabric. Strange, but the fact is that the strawberry is used to keep these needles sharp and smooth.

Hand sewing needles come in various sizes and shapes. One of these can be selected based upon the requirement and fabric specifications. Most commonly used are known as “sharps”. Sharps are of standard medium length, have a circular eye, and are suitable for most of the sewing methods and works fine with most of the fabrics. For quilting, the needles that are used are known as “betweens”. These are short needles, shorter than sharps and with a round eye. As this has to join three or more thick fabrics together, the structure is slightly different than sharps. For beading again there is a different sort of needle that is used. These needles are very fine, even the eye is small and narrow so as to fit through the center of the bead but a long shaft so that it can hold multiple beads at the same time.

Other than these, there are few more types of needles that are designed for specific kinds of fabric and purpose:

• Tapestry: These needles are large as compare to sharps or betweens. They have a large eye to carry a thicker and heavy weight yarn. The tip of these needles is blunt so that it can pierce through a thick material without breaking its tip or tearing off the fabric. It is especially used for embroidery.
• Leather: Leather needles also known as wedges because they have triangular tip specially designed to pierce through leather smoothly. It is meant for material like leather or even plastic
• Tatting: These are long and thick needles. Even the eye is thick maintaining the uniformity of the needle which lets the needle to be pulled out through double stitching in the fabric.

Sewing needle is an inexpensive option with a wide variety specially designed for specific purpose and fabric.

Are you also looking for information on knitting needles?  You can click on our post on how to find the correct knitting needle sizes.