Sewing homework - needle sizes.

"The purpose of Sewing Homework is

to record my process of learning

as a self-taught seamstress."

This week - needles!

For my first week of Sewing Homework, I set myself the task of learning about needles. I wanted to know why there were different sizes of needles, and what the different shaped needles were for?

I had been pondering this ever since Christine and Meg told me I should use a ballpoint needle for the bikini I am making. A what point needle I thought to myself? I knew I had to do some research...

Turns out a ballpoint needle is recommended when sewing a knit fabric as the rounded tip of the needle pushes the fabric fibers apart as it stitches, rather that splitting the fibers like a regular needle would. And did you know you can also get ballpoint needles for your serger/overlocker? I certainly didn't!

Here are my pages for this week...

~ Click on the images to enlarge them ~

Every week I will record my learnings in my Sewing Homework diary, scan the pages, and on Fridays I will post them on the blog, in the hope that they might be useful to you too.

Sam xox