How To Choose Pins and Needles For Your DIY Home Decor Projects
At different stages of your home decor projects, you may need to use different grades and types of hand-sewing needles. You may need to to attach coiled springs to a seat frame, create decorative welt cords or hand-stitch beaded designs onto embroidered pieces.
We'll focus specifically on hand-stitching needles, that you can use for light upholstery and design work, like:
Utility Sewing
Stitching decor fabric panels together for soft-furnishings and furniture covers.
Design Work
Creating designs and embellishments onto decor fabric
Okay, firstly, you may find that hand-stitching needles of different classes, sizes and lengths can be used to do the exact same, similar or a even a much better job than the needle you're 'supposed to' use.
Once you've completed a number of hand-sewn projects, you'll probably relocate your 'most used' needles from their original packaging, to a needle wallet, pin cushion or to a sewing kit, for easier access.
Unlike sewing machine needles, most hand-stitching needles are not marked with a coloured head. You'll soon begin to distinguish your needles by looking at their features, and determining if they're fit for the job.
You'll be more concerned about what you can do with your needles. You'll consider the following points before you select a hand-stitching needle for your project:
Size of the Needle Eye
Can your thread(s) get through the needle eye-hole? Will you need a magnifier to thread it?
Durability of Needle Shaft
Will the needle bend or snap under pressure while you're sewing?
Strength of Needle Eye Frame
Can the needle eye-hole withstand friction from a strong thread? Are there rough burrs on the inside of the needle eye-hole?
Diameter of Needle Shaft
Will the needle's girth leave large holes in closely woven or delicate fabric?
Sharpness of Needle Point
Can the needlepoint penetrate dense and thick fabrics?
The smoothness of the needle shaft
Will the needle snag on silk, satin, lace or other delicate fabrics?
Secondly, while I will suggest my favourite hand-stitching needle brands, the point is that needles are a very personal choice and your preference should be based on your unique style of hand-stitching.
Think about the way in which you grip your needles between your fingers, and the amount of pressure that you apply to the needle while you're sewing.
For example, I have strong fingers and some brands and sizes of hand-stitching needles may bend or break, if I apply too much pressure while I'm sewing.
I've personally tested (read bent and broken) different types and brands of needles, while hand-stitching my way through a large number of different home decor projects. It's been said that a poor workman blame's his tools, but some tools are just not up to the job in the first place. I've now developed a core set of needles that I can use for most of the projects I need to work on.
We'll categorise different types of hand-stitching needles, based on their usefulness for light upholstery and decor design work. Here are our categories:
Embellishments
Designing with Embroidery, Beading and Applique
Light Upholstery
Utility Stitching with light, medium and heavy decor fabrics
Embellishments
Applique
In applique, small shapes of fabric are mounted onto a large (main) piece of fabric.
The aim is to create a design or picture, where the small shapes of fabric are the features of the picture and the large piece is the background of the picture. Badges and patchwork are attached to clothing in a similar way.
You can even stuff the small pieces to give your designs a two-dimensional effect. Either way, you'll use small uniform stitches to attach the small pieces of fabric to the large main piece.
Applique Needle
A proper applique needle is short in length (longer ones measure up to 5 cm). It has a slender body and often has a more rounded needle eye hole, and a very sharp point at the tip.
Applique needles range through sizes 9 (largest), 10 (medium,) 11 (smallest).
Sharps Needle
Perhaps the most common hand-stitching needle of all, Sharps is an all-purpose needle. A sharp is the equivalent of a universal needle for a home-sewing machine.
A Sharps needle has a wide eye hole for easy threading and a very sharp tip, which can penetrate layers of fabric. The lowest number for Sharps is a size 2; it's also the size with the thickest diameter in the Sharps range.
Upholstery
Sharps in Sizes 8 to 2 can be used for sewing light upholstery and soft furnishings with medium to heavy decor fabrics.
Embroidery
Sharps in Sizes 9 to 12 are perfect for applique or embroidery that requires general threads or floss that are neither too thin or too thick.
Size 12 is the thinnest needle in the Sharps range. With some brands, it is the hardest to thread and also has a tendency to bend or break.
Certain brands of Sharps have a special coating sealed onto the needle. This coating makes the needle rigid and keeps the needle point extremely sharp.
The coating helps the needle to glide smoothly through your decor fabric. If you have strong sewing fingers like me, certain brands of coated needle, may be too rigid/brittle and snap while you're sewing.
Quilting Needles
A Quilting needle is short and slender, and has a round eye hole and a sharp tip.
It's a great needle for creating intricate, uniform stitches. The Quilting needle is broader and shorter than the Sharps range of needles and is used to sew through layers of fabric and stuffing. Quilting needles range in size from 5 to 12, with Size 12 being the smallest in the range.
Quilting Needles Between
The needle known as 'Between' is a thinner and shorter version of a normal quilting needle.
Milners Needles
The Milner's needle is also called 'a Straw Needle'. As the name suggests, this needle is customarily used by hat-artisans. It's slender and long, similar to a beading needle, except it has a slightly smaller eye hole.
The body of a Milner's needle is the same diameter (thickness) throughout the shaft and tapers into a fine sharp point at the end. The uniform shape and long, slender length makes it useful for a number of needle crafts that you may want to include in your home decor projects, for example:
Little bullion knots and french knots - the eye hole is centred in line with the needle's shaft, so the needle doesn't get caught on the fabric fibres, as it goes through the knots.
Hand-stitching tiny sequins, pearls and beads onto decor fabric - the needle's long length can load many beads onto a single stitch in one go.
Gathering, basting and smocking - the needle's long length allows multiple stitches to be sewn at one go.
The Milners needle is the longest needle used in applique, so if you want to use it for this purpose, you'll need to have good control (dexterity).
Beading
Upholstered furniture, cushions, curtains, tiebacks and throws can look stunning and sumptuous with both simple as well as intricate beaded designs. The right beaded embellishments can add 'airs and graces' to the look, without the associated high costs.
Beading Needles
You can use this needle to attach beads, sequins and pearls onto your decor fabric. Beading Needles come in both short and long lengths, in broad and slender diameters as well as straight and curved shapes. The needle has a sharp point and the sizes range from 10 to 15.
Curved beading needles are small and slender. They're superb for stitching bead designs onto a solid, curved form, for example attaching pearls around the perimeter of a fully upholstered chaise longue.
The eye hole of the beading needle is long and slender, which holds the finer beading cord in place. The entire shaft is fine enough to fit through the tiny holes in the beads, and the long length of the needle can hold multiple beads on it at once.
Embroidery
Embroidery is an embellishment technique that's used to decorate fabric, and it is fast and easy to learn - definitely one of my favourite crafts.
To embroider, draw out a design onto your fabric. Then load a needle with thread, yarn or ribbon and use the needle to weave decorative stitches on top of your design. It's basically colouring-in or outlining your design using coloured thread, yarn or ribbons. .....(Secret: You don't have to use decorative stitches).
The decorative stitches are called 'embroidery' stitches. There are many different styles of Embroidery, for example Black work, Crewel, Stump work, Huck Embroidery and Cross-stitch.
Embroidery and Crewel Needles
The embroidery and crewel needles are an 'all purpose' class of needles, similar to Sharps. The size of the needle determines whether it's called an 'Embroidery' needle or a 'Crewel' needle.
Embroidery Needles
Embroidery needles are the small sized needles in the range and have large numbers 9, 10 and 12. Size 12 is the smallest needle in the range.
Crewel Needles
The larger sized needles have small numbers and are called Crewel needles. Size 1 is the largest Crewel needle size, followed by 3, 5, 7 and 9.
Embroidery and Crewel needles have various eye hole sizes to accomodate different thread and floss thicknesses, they also hae sharp points, which can penetrate most fabrics. They are noticeable by their shape which has an eye that's wider than the shaft - like a lollipop on a stick.
You can get smaller, blunt-tipped embroidery needles which are ideal for embroidering on loose weave fabric. These needle doesn't pierce the fabric, instead, it goes between the gaps in fabrics such as lace. Other needles can be used to create sensational embroidered designs.
Chenille Needles
Upholstery
Chenille needles are the middle-ground between embroidery needles and tapestry needles. They are largest at a size 13.
Embroidery
Chenille needles decrease in diameter as the size goes down. A size 26 is the smallest in the class.
Chenille needles have a large eye hole, this allows you to create show-stopping embroidery designs, with everything from thick metallic floss, to silk and satin ribbons.
The sharp tip and wide body of chenille needles, create large enough holes in the decor fabric to guide the threads and ribbons through, without shedding them or leaving behind a trail of fuzzy bits on the decor fabric.
Larger chenille needle shafts are usually sturdy and don't tend to bend or break under pressure. The eye hole is large enough to take up to 6 strands of 40 wt cotton thread, however, some brands have badly made eye holes which can and DO snap off while sewing with thick decor fabric.
Tapestry Needle
A tapestry needle is used to hand-stitch needle designs onto the type of fabric that has visible holes and requires a thread count, for example, black work and counted cross-stitch.
These needles have a large eye hole and a blunt needle tip, which makes them ideal for creating decorative stitches on loose or even weave fabrics.
The tip is designed to guide the needle and thread through the gaps between loosely packed fabric fibres. Tapestry needles with a high number have a smaller size.
Chain Stitch
Sizes 28, 26, 24 and 22 can be used for chain stitch on crocheted fabric
Tapestry
Sizes 20, 18, and 16 can be used for tapestry
Light Upholstery:
The Utility stitch
Utility stitch has a different meaning depending on who you ask. At Furnished By Hand, utility stitching means to securely and permanently join pieces of fabric together with thread.
A Sewing machine offers three basic utility stitches, which are the zigzag stitch for sewing pieces of stretch fabric together and the straight stitch for sewing pieces of non-stretch fabric together.
At Furnished by Hand, we will use two different utility hand-stitches to join fabric pieces together. These two hand-stitching techniques are hidden, which means they're not 'obvious' on the right side of the fabric.
Pin Back or Half Back Stitch
These stitches are my favourite style. I use them to hold different types of materials together. They produce a strong bond and are ideal for sewing high traffic upholstered furniture.
Slip stitch
The Slip stitch is great for invisible hemming on finer decor fabrics like satin and voile curtains.
There are plenty of basic sewing needles that you can use to to complete your light upholstery projects. We've been through some of them already and we'll recap at the end of this section, but first lets go through other useful 'needle-like' tools that will help you to complete your home decor designs.
Easy Threading Needles
You may want to keep a few Easy Threading (or Self-Threading Needles) on hand for those times when you can't find your monocle or magnifying tool. An easy threading needle appears to have two eye holes at the top of the needle.
The top eye is actually a top slot. The thread is pushed down over the top slot and held in place while you sew, which saves you from having to squint and aim through the small eye hole while threading your needle.
Curved Upholstery Needles
Upholstery needles are used for hand-stitching decor fabric and stuffing, during the soft and heavy stages of your upholstery projects. These needles are either curved (in a semi-circle) or straight. The curved shape of the needle is helpful for blind-stitching fabric over the stuffing in snug, curved and awkward areas.
The curved needle is often used in traditional forms of upholstery. It can be used to attach coiled springs and burlap to the frame of an armchair. For soft stages, thinner curved needles can be used to permanently stitch decor fabric, vinyl or leather over a padded couch frame.
Cording Needles
If you are thinking of making some of your own frills and trims, Cording needles are useful for sewing braids and decorative welt cords. Cording needles are fine gauge (slender shaft) and have a sharp point.
Regulator
A regulator is a 10-inch long rod, that's flat at one end and pointed at the other end. These are not needles as such, but they are very useful needle-like tools.
The flat end is used to ease pleats and gathers, while the pointed end is used to manipulate and arrange the stuffing inside upholstered items.
Skewers
Like fabric pins, skewers are used to temporarily hold decor fabric pattern pieces together while hand-stitching. I find the 4-inch skewers are the most practical size to use.
Heavy Duty Pins
You can get special heavy-duty pins for upholstery. These pins are strong and plated, so they're ideal for holding heavy decor fabric pattern pieces together.
Double-Ended Needle
This needle has a sharp tip at both ends and can be used to blind stitch stuffing, attach decking to sofa foundation, pull buttons for tufting headrests and attaching buttons to pillows.
Remember that you can also use:
Sharps Needle
Sizes 2 is the largest in the Sharps class. Sizes 8 to 2 can be used for sewing light upholstery with medium to heavy decor fabric.
Chenille Needle
Size 13 is the largest in the Chenille Class. Sizes 13 to 16 can be used for sewing light upholstery with medium to heavy decor fabric.
Hand-stitching Notions and Helpers
Thimbles
Your hands are your most valued hand-stitching tool, so protecting your fingers is extremely important. Thimbles are small cups that sit over the first inch of your finger (from tip to the first joint).
They are available in many different types, shapes and sizes, and are also made in different shapes from different materials, for example:
Stainless Steel,Rubber and Silicone and copper Full Cup, adhesive dots and finger guards
Thimbles range in price from a few pounds up to a few hundred pounds. Whether you're sewing fine voile or soft leather, the aim is to protect your finger tips and nails, (especially when they are hidden under fabric), from pins and needles.
Okay, the thing is that thimbles, just like hand-stitching needles, are a very personal choice, a decision you'll make based on:
your unique sewing style: the way you hold your needle
the type of stitches you are creating
the size of your fingers,
allergies to thimble materials
the way in which you position your fabric while you sew
Leather Finger-Tip Protector
Leather or faux leather thimbles are very durable and practical. The material is thick enough to protect, while also breathable and comfortable enough for long hand-stitching sessions.
You can use the thimble to safely push pins and needles through heavy decor fabric, without the fear of damage to your fingers.
Some leather thimbles come with a pitted metal disc which sits over the finger pad of your finger and helps to stabilise needles (stop them from skidding) while they are pushed through thick material.
Emery Needle Sharpener
Emery is a black/grey granular rock. When it's ground down, it forms an abrasive powder like the stuff on your nail file. Fine grit emery powder is used to sharpen and polish hand-sewing needles.
A pin cushion often comes with a love heart or strawberry shaped pouch attached to it. It's called and Emery Sharpener and is filled with emery powder.
Push your pins and needles back and forth around the tip of the strawberry pouch, after each use, and this will keep them smooth and sharp.
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