Needle Know-How

April 1, 2008

Most embroidery shops can get by with stocking the basic needle types: ball-points, sharps, large-eye and wedge-point needles. It's important to know what fabric each was designed to sew on for maximum quality and productivity.

Choosing the right needle for a job helps improve embroidery quality. However, it's not necessary to store every type of needle known to mankind. The following needle types will suffice for most embroidery shops:

• Ball-points — Use on fabrics that stretch, such as interlock, jersey, piqué and mesh.

• Sharps — Use on woven fabrics, including canvas and denim, and on most caps.

• Large-eye — These come in sharp and ball-point versions. Use with specialty threads, such as metallics, wool blends, variegated and any others considered hard to stitch.

• Wedge-points — Use for sewing on leather, suede and vinyl.

• Titanium needles — Use on appliqué or work that calls for sticky backing or spray adhesive. These needles also are well suited for heavy and thick items, including dog collars, harnesses and karate belts.

Remember that if a design is not digitized for a specific type of fabric, thread or backing, it will not stitch well regardless of needle choice. Be sure your digitizer knows all the variables for each design he digitizes.

When it's time to change needles, throw out any old ones so you don't confuse them with new ones. Finally, before you switch out all of your needles, ask your embroidery machine vendor if your machine will handle a particular needle. You may need to adjust needle bars to accommodate different needles.

— From the EMB archives

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