6 Factors to Consider when Choosing Embroidery Needles

The selection of needles by class, variety, and size for a certain material is necessary to eliminate thread breakage, needle breakage, skipped stitches and fraying of the thread.

Choosing the right Needle

The material being embroidered determines the choice of the right needle size and point form. It is very important that the proper needle being used to ensure good machine operation. The selection of needles by class, variety, and size for a certain material is necessary to eliminate thread breakage, needle breakage, skipped stitches and fraying of the thread.

Needles have to be inserted with the flat side upward position until the limit stop in reached. Needles that are not inserted correctly can cause needle and yarn breakage. Needle tips have to be controlled from time to time and exchanged if necessary because blunt needle tips cause unsatisfactory embroidery results (i.e. holes in the fabric).

Machine needles have a long needle slot on one side, and a short needle slot on the opposite side. The purpose of the needle slot is to allow the thread to fall back on the needle when it enters the material to prevent the thread from breaking or fraying. On Saurer system machines, the long needle slot is placed on the right, on Plauen system machines it placed on the left. All needles are available in Plauen system for right-hand machines and in Saurer system for left-hand machines.

Needles are ordered by needle number and needle tip. Needle sizes are specified from 70/80/90/100/110/120/130 or depending on the needle company also from 00/0/1/2/3/4/5.

Rule of thumb for how to choose the right needle size for a certain yarn (test not applicable for special yarns)

Take a piece of 40 to 50cm of the yarn being used and a needle and thread the yarn. Hold the ends of yarn in both the hands and move the thread in a diagonal position. If the needle sizes are correct the needle slides downwards with the force of its own weight.

The thread must pass freely through the eye of the needle to prevent thread fraying or breaking. Choose the smallest possible needle size.

Pointed Needles

• They are scarcely deflected by hard stitches
• Make small holes
• Lowest resistance when entering the fabric
• Needles can become blunt after lengthy use
• One of the reasons for needle breakage while running chemical lace is wrong punching. If underlays and flat stitches are not correctly placed and being punched on top of each other, the area gets hard. The consequence is that a SUK or TR needle cannot pass this area and the result is needle breakage. To reduce the number of needle breakages, it is advisable to use pointed needles for chemical laces.

Needles with Medium ball point/SUK Needles

• Red color marking as a second color for identification
• Holes in material are slightly larger
• On patterns with hard stitches, the needle can be repelled (needle breaks)
• The use of a medium ball point needle-like SUK is recommended for fabrics which cannot be damaged by the slightly blunt tip. It is not suitable for various net materials.

Needles with round tips/TR Needles

• Yellow color marking as a second color for identification
• Net fabrics are not cut open
• Maximum resistance upon entry into the material
• Large holes in material
• Needles can be repelled by hard stitches (needle breaks)
• The use of a round ball point needle like TR is necessary for net fabrics or materials with similar characteristics. The round point avoids damaging the material being embroidered. Not advisable for chemical lace designs.

SA Needles

• No additional colour marking
• Needles with a diameter of the eye section being one needle size larger than the normal diameter and they do not have a separate colour marking
• Often used for Lurex yarn
• Thread holds well in the needle channel, but eye is still large
• Holes in material can remain small in contrast to embroidered yarn

Special Needles

• Are available in pointed, SUK or TR version and they are used when the loop of the leader tilts upwards (e.g. round Lurex, poor quality textured yarn)
• There have a horizontal eye and a black colour marking as third colour for identification
• The loop is stabilized if it tilts upwards (stitches dropped)
• Special needles have the same benefits and drawbacks as pointed, SUK and TR needles
• Threading in is less convenient due to the horizontal needle eye

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