A

SEMINAR REPORT

On

SEWING NEEDLES

GUIDED BYPROF. A.I.THAKKAR

PREPARED BY

VINU NAKUM (11607) VAIBHAV CHAUDHARY (11603)

PANKAJ SOLANKI (11613)

SEWING NEEDLE

HISTORY OF SEWING NEEDLE

A sewing needle is a long slender object with a pointed tip. The first sewing needles were made of bone or wood; modern ones are manufactured from high carbon steel wire, nickel- or gold plated for corrosion resistance. The highest quality embroidery needles are made of platinum. Traditionally, needles have been kept in needle books or needle cases which 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 names depending on their purpose.

Needle size is denoted by a number on the packet. The convention for sizing is that the length and thickness of a needle increases as the size number decreases. For example, a size 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 find such as the excavation on the island of eland at Ably, Sweden revel object such bone needle case. Ago 40,000 yeas at the Kostenki side in Russia needle was found.Native of American was also known to use sewing needles from natural sources. One such sources, “the agava plant” it provides both the needles & thread. The first sewing needle was made of bone or wood. Modern one is manufactured from 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 give corrosion resistance , resistance to mechanical wear, reduction of friction during sewing and a good overall performance, the material used for plating are chromium or nickel. One requirement of surface finish of needles is that they should not easily pick up any particles of synthetic fabric or synthetic sewing threads which are may have 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.

DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE NEEDLES

1) Shank 2) Shaft 3) Groove 4) Scarf 5) Eye 6) Point

SHANK:

The upper thick part of a sewing machine needle is called the shank. This part of the needle is inserted in the

machine. Home sewing machine needles are composed of a flat and a round side, to assist in always having the needle in the correct position. Always refer to your sewing machine manual for the correct way to insert the needle in your machine.

Industrial machine needles have a completely round shaft and the groove is used to know which direction to put a new 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 the groove, 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 the needle.

Use your fingernail and feel the groove of the needle on various sizes to understand why a different size thread would be needed for heavier thread.

SCARF:

The scarf is a groove out of one side of the needle. The scarf allows the bobbin case hook to intersect with the upper thread and form stitches.

EYE:

The eye of the needle carries the thread so the machine can keep forming stitches.

The size of the eye can vary and works in conjunction with the groove of the needle.

Using a needle with an eye that is too small or too large can cause your thread to shred and break.

POINT:

The point of the needle is the first contact with the fabric and responsible for how the needle pierces the fabric.

The most common types of point are sharps, ballpoint and 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. They have a sharp point, a round eye and are of medium length. 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 enable easier threading of multiple embroidery threads and thicker yarns.

Betweens or Quilting needles are shorter, with a small rounded eye and are usually used for making fine stitches on heavy fabrics such as in tailoring, quilt making and other detailed handwork.

Milliners' needles are longer than sharps, are useful for basting and pleating and are used in millinery work.

Easy- or Self-threading needles, also called Calyx-eyed Sharps, have a slot, rather than an eye for the thread.

2. MACHINE NEEDLES

The most common machine needles for standard running stitch are universal &ball point needles, letter it is used for knits & woven material.

stretch needles Jeans needles denim needles leather needles

Are all fashioned to work well with material.

Stretch needles

The stretch needle is the Last resort needle when Ballpoint still leave skipped. Many people will not attempt Sewing lyecra & swimwear without a stretch needle.

JEANS & DENIM NEEDLES

These needles have an extra sharp point and stiff shank, making it a strong needle for sewing tough fabrics and many layers of fabric.

Leather needles

The point of the leather Needle is well shaped so that it penetrates leather & other heavy nonwovens.

Wing needle

A wing needle is used for heirloom sewing. The sides of the wing needle shank are flared and create openwork stitching on woven fabrics.

TWIN & TRIPAL NEEDLES

There are several specially machine sewing needle which mentioned. Twin & triple needles are both used for decorative stitching.

SPECIAL PURPOSE NEEDLES:

Ballpoints have a rounded point and are used for knitted fabrics. Sizes 5-10.

Beading needles are very fine, with a narrow eye to enable 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 ballpoint end 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 tapestry needles, but with 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 yarn darners being the heaviest with very large eyes to thread yarn. Various types, with sizes ranging from 1-18.

Doll needles are long and thin and are used for soft sculpturing on dolls, particularly facial details. Size 2.5"-7" long.

Leather needles, also known as Glovers needles have a 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 but the triangular point extends further up the shaft of the needle. Used for sewing thick canvas or heavy leather.

Tapestry needles have a large eye and a blunt tip. They are used for working on embroidery canvas, even-weave material and other loosely woven fabrics. The blunt tip allow the needle to pass through the fabric without damaging it. Double ended tapestry needles, with the hole in the middle, are also available

for the convenience of embroiderers who work with fabric mounted in a frame. Sizes from 13 (heaviest) to 28 (finest).

Tatting needles are long and are the same thickness for their entire length, including at the eye, to enable thread to be pulled through the double stitches used in tatting.

Upholstery needles are heavy, long needles that can be straight or curved. Used for sewing heavy fabrics, upholstery work, tufting and for tying quilts. Curved needles are used for difficult situations where a straight needle is not practical and are also used in fabric box-making. Heavy duty 12" needles are used for repairing mattresses. Straight sizes: 3"-12" long, curved: 1.5"-6" long.

DETERMINATION OF NEEDLE SIZE

Understanding the numbers associated with sewing machine Needles will help you make the correct choice and possibly solve machine problems.

The American system uses 8 to 19, 8 being a fine needle and 19 being a thick heavy needle.

European sizes range from 60 to 120, 60 being a fine needle and 120 being a thick heavy needle.

Think of a fine sheer window curtain. You will need a fine needle such as a 8/60 needle. Using a 19/120 would leave holes in the fabric.

Now let's look at heavy upholstery fabric. If you were to try and sew through upholstery fabric with a 8/60

needle, it would bend or break. Using a 19/120 provides a needle strong enough to penetrate the fabric and carry a thread strong enough for this type of fabric

Now let's look at a combination … You have a lightweight fabric but you want to do a heavy topstitching detail with heavy thread. Normally the heavy thread would call for you to use a heavy needle such as a 120/19, but that would leave holes in your fabric. Now you would experiment with a needle that falls 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 capability limits in the demanding high speed production of beautiful flat seam. It resulting in the high quality requirements of such needles.

1. Stitch skipping

Poor needle alignment and needle with an insufficient straightness are often the cause of stitch skipping.

They aggravate needle deflection and cause an irregular operational distance between needles and lopper.

2. Damage to throat plate

This damage basically has the same cause as skipping, insufficient straight or deflected needles strike upon the finger of the throat plate.

3. Needle breakage

Lake in method of heat treatment as well as a careful adoption of the needle design to the specific m/c function causes needle breakage.

4. Fabric damage

High penetration resistance also reflects the outstanding functional quality of needle & it damages the fabric.

5. Needle point damage

A sharp needle point will be damaged rather quickly through the unavoidable dynamic impact with the looper back.

These in turn reduce the life of needle.

6. Thread breakage

The fiber of the sewing thread will be damaged if the surface of needle eye is not perfectly smooth. After short period of sewing thread breakage will be occur.

NEEDLE POINT:

The basic division of needle point is into cutting point & cloth point. This division is necessary because of the fundamentally different construction of the two types of material which must be sewn, namely leather and plastic which are essential sheet material with no gaps within the structure and textile fabric which, woven, knitted or made from bonded textile fibers in a non-woven form, have spaces within the structure through which a needle can penetrate. In a sheet material, the needle point must cut a sufficient hole that the needle blade and thread can pass through it without excessive friction, but there must be sufficient strength of material left between the holes that do not run together, especially under stress, and cause the garment to split.

Cloth point needles, as their name suggest, are used for sewing textile material rather than the sheet material. It has a round cross section as opposed to the various cutting shapes of the leather needles and the tip at the end of the point can vary in shape to suit the particular material being sewn.

Knitted fabric consist of yarns with spaces them and if a yarn in a knitted fabric is broken the knitted structure may begin to unravel. This yarn breakage can happen in two way,

- By the needle directly striking the yarn & damaging it.

- By the needle entering a knitted loop which is not large enough to accommodate it.

This situation is generally referred as needle damage but it is not the result of the needle of the needle itself damaged but of the point type and fabric combination being unsuitable. Thus the requirement in sewing knitted fabric is for a needle which will slightly deflect the yarn and enter the spaces, one which is not itself so deflected that it fails to form the stitch properly, a needle of small a size as possible consistent with needle strength and sewing thread size and finally a fabric which is sufficient lubricated that is flexibility of in relation to the movement of the needle. The shape of the tip of the needle is referred to as a Boll point needle.

Woven fabric consists of yarn which can have greater or lesser amounts o twist interlaced with each other at various degrees of density. Thus woven fabric may have quite sizable spaces within the structure if loosely woven from low twist yarns or they may be extremely dance if high twist yarns have been packed closely together. Due to this the needle does not go between the fibers and does not strike and break them. The shape of the tip of the needle point which is best achieves this penetration between the fibers has the appearance of being slightly cone shaped which s referred as set point

needle. This construction strengthens the point and reduces the possibility of damage at the tip.

Both ball and set point needle are available in a no. of types shown in the fig.

1. Light ball point2. Slim set point3. Set point 4. Medium ball point5. Heavy ball point6. Heavy set point

As the needle size decrease the radius of each ball point decrease. A heavy set point or stub point can be used for button sewing.

SELECTION OF THE NEEDLE

We know that most readily available machine needles are sized from 9 to 18 - the smaller the number, the smaller the needle. This remains true, even if the needles you purchase use a different numbering system.

Use standard sharp sewing machine needles in sizes 11 to 14 for most sewing projects. A smaller-sized needle is best for sheer or lightweight fabrics. Sizes 16 to 18 are used for heavyweight fabrics like denim.

Use ball-point machine needles to sew knits or other stretchy fabrics. Their blunt edges allow the thread to pass between the fabric's fibers rather than through them. This is crucial for maintaining the fabric's elasticity.

Use wedge-point machine needles to sew leathers, suede and vinyls. The shape of this needle will create a slit (rather than a large hole) through which the thread will pass.

Change your needle at the start of each project. A worn or damaged needle will cause skipped or uneven stitches and may damage your fabric

Purchase a package of assorted needle sizes if you are unsure which is appropriate for your fabric. Test the various sizes on some scrap fabric until you determine the correct size to use.

Check the label on the needle package before you make a purchase. For most brands, there will be a sizing guide that will tell you which fabrics can be sewn with the enclosed needles.