Sewing-Know Your Sewing Needles

	Know Your Sewing Needles To ensure you choose the best needle for the task in hand we have the perfect guide for you.
needles   Easy- Threading Easy Threading needles have a slot eye into which the thread is pulled. They’re especially made for people who have difficulty in threading ordinary needles. Betweens/Quilting Betweens or Quilting needles are short for quick even stitching. Traditionally used by tailors and professional sewers. Milliners/Straw Milliners needles are long with round eyes for work on bonnets, hats etc. They are also suitable for pleating and decoration work on children's dresses. Embroidery/Crewel Embroidery or Crewel needles are the same as Sharps, but have long eyes to take one or more threads of Anchor stranded cotton. Mainly used for embroidery. Bodkins Bodkins are flat or round and have large eyes for threading cords, tapes and elastics. Darners Darning needles are for mending work with wool or cottons. Sizes 14-18 are known as Wool or Yarn Darners and are used for spanning large holes. Long Darners Darning needles have very long eyes for mending work with wool or cottons. Tapestry Tapestry needles have blunt points which slip between fabric yarns without splitting them. Use them with wool or thick embroidery cotton on canvas or open mesh fabric. Sharps Sharps needles are for general purpose sewing. Their short round eyes provide added strength. Chenille Chenille needles are short with very long eyes. They are ideal for chenille work and for stitching coarse materials with thick yarns. Gloves/Leather Leather needles have triangular points that pierce without tearing. Use them for gloves, belts and all garments in leather, vinyl or plastic. Beading Beading needles are very fine and straight with long eyes. They are specially made to thread beads and pearls. Ball Point Sewing Ball point needles are specially designed for use on jersey, stretch and other synthetic fabrics. The rounded point ensures that they do not cut, tear or damage the material. Twin Needle A twin needle is constructed with two needles on a crossbar from a single shaft. They can be used with zigzag sewing machines that thread front to back. Also used to sew two rows of stitching at the same time. u get many more from here...

Weaving Mats

Materials Required :

1. Wool (Different shades)
2. Frame
3. Big Needle
4. Ordinary material of any shade
5. Wool brush

Frames can be round, hexagon or square. You can make beautiful mats by weaving the wool on the square and hexagon frames. With the round frame you can make flower patterns and join them to make a shawl or table cloth according to your choice.

Procedure for round shaped frame : 

Click on the pictures to see an enlarged and clear version.

1. Hold the frame and the end of the wool below with your hand as shown in the figure on the right. Take one strand of the wool up from below through the inside opening of the frame.
2.  Wind it through the opposite nails of the outer circle in the shape of number eight (8) thrice.
3. After finishing the three winds, take the wool to the next opposite pair of nails in the outer circle. Repeat the process till all the nails in the outer circle are completed. The end of the wool should be brought down and tied. 
4. Take a contrast colour wool and follow the same procedure to weave the inner circle.  
5. Tie all the ends of wool below, together .
6. Insert a strand of wool through the needle. Pass the needle alternatively through the gap between the windings bring it back through the middle gap of the two windings.  Repeat the stitch till all the windings are fastened. Put a knot in the end. This fastens the flower pattern in place. 
7. Carefully remove the windings from the frame. Now one flower is ready. You can make more flowers and join them to make a table cloth or shawl according to your choice.

Procedure for Hexagon / Square shaped Frame:

Click on the pictures to see an enlarged and clear version.

1. For a hexagon shaped frame, the number of nails should be odd numbers. Here the frame used has 9 nails on all sides. 
2. Take the wool, put one knot at a corner with the wool and immediately take it to the second nail as in figure.
3.  Then wind the wool thrice through the opposite nails tightly (the windings can be three or six or more according to your choice). After finishing the three winds, continue with the next opposite nails. Repeat this process until the whole frame is completed.
4. Take any contrast shade wool and repeat the above procedure once more.
5. Take another shade and repeat the same. Altogether at least three shades of wool should be wound on the frame.
6. Insert a thread in a needle to tighten all joints, of windings of the three shades of wool.  Tighten all the joints continuously without putting knots after each joint. After tying, you will get a star shape in each joints as shown in figure.
7. Without cutting the base colour (first shade winding), cut all the other layers around the joints. After cutting you will get a shape of a flower.
8. Take the wool brush and brush the flowers with it to make the mat bushy.
9.  Remove the mat carefully from the frame by cutting the base shade wool, along the nails around the frame. 
10. You can fix the mat on any ordinary shade of material.

 

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