The Different Needles for Your Materials

The Different Needles for Your Materials

A sewing machine is a great tool, yet it is nothing without the needle that makes its work possible. If you want your machine to reach its potential and do your material justice, then you need the perfect sewing needle to go along with it. Quality requires the right needle for the job!

So, there’s a needle for every occasion; but which needle is the right one for you?

Size

Needle sizes are calculated by the diameter of the needle, so a needle 0.7mm in diameter would be a 70 needle. Different sizes are better for different fabrics. As a rule of thumb:

• No. 60 = silk, cotton, sheer fabric.
• No. 70 = cotton, lining fabric.
• No. 80 = cotton shirting, quilting cotton.
• No. 90 = linen, cushion fabric, curtain lining.
• No. 100 = denim.
• No. 110 = canvas fabric, leather, PVC, vinyl.
• No. 120 = thicker versions of leather, denim and canvas.

Needle Types

Of course, needles are not only different in their size. They also differ in the types of needles that are available and their uses. The most obvious are the sharp needles. They are, predictably, sharp and more commonly used on materials such as cotton and linen. This is in order to ensure it creates stitches in the materials cleanly without tearing.

There is also the ballpoint (also known as the jersey) needle which is specifically made to work well with man-made materials. So, when working with poly cotton or other such mixes you should use this type of needle. You can also get stretch needles, which are the same as ballpoints apart from a coating that allows them to slip through difficult fabrics more easily. They’re ideal for stretchy fabrics, thus the name, which are otherwise hard to separate to make the stitches perfectly spaced and formed.

Another needle type is known as the machine embroidery needle. These come in lots of shapes and sizes, as they produce intricate patterns at impressive speeds. Usually, these are placed in the upmarket embroidery machines. The eye of the needle is larger, due to the thicker nature of embroidery thread and usually tougher to deal with the added pressure of the speed and heat at which they work.

However, if you need just a needle that will be the jack of all trades? Then a microtex needle is your best friend. This is a versatile needle, able to be used on a variety of fabrics and in different situations.

At Stocks we have engineers based nationwide to help maintain your machines no matter the material you are working with! Contact us today and we will be happy to answer any of your enquiries.