Sewing Machine Needle

• Parts of Needle
  
  
  


• 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
• Check that long grove of the needle facing exactly to left in direction.

Sewing Machine Needle Sizes

On the packages of sewing needles you will see two numbers. The larger number is the European metric system and it tells you the diameter of the needle in fractions of a millimeter. The smaller number is the American numbering system.

For twin needles, the first needle is the distance between the needles in millimeteres. The second number is the European number for the size of the needle.

European	American
60	8
65	9
70	10
75	11
80	12
90	14
100	16
110	18

You should select the size of the needle based on the weight of your fabric. The finer the fabric the lower the number you should use.

Fabric	Needle Size
Very Lightweight	8 or 9
Lightweight	9, 10 or 11
Medium Weight	12 or 14
Heavyweight	14 or 16
Very Heavyweight	16 or 18