Okay, I'll explain the screwy title to this post.
Long ago, I decided I was done with never having a threaded needle on hand (let alone not finding any thread anywhere). Needles could be found, but it was usually only after sweeping the floor meticulously, sitting on one, or pulling one from my heel (ouch!).
Well, enough is enough. For safety's sake, I started making sure that every needle had some thread in it, so that it could be found easily. At first, I started with simple white, but the more I thought about it, why not have all my colors prethreaded? So this, I began to do. And, wha la! Now whenever I need a specific color of thread, I don't have to worry about finding any needle, or the right colored thread. I just go to my hand corkboard, where I always have three prethreaded needles of every color on hand.
Here's how it's done: first, make sure that you have the right needle for the job. If you mostly quilt, you will want most of your needles to be shorter ones. It makes it easier to pull in and out on the short stitches neede.
Most of my hand sewing projects involve basting stitches. For this reason, I have mostly longer needles.
Now naturally, if I am working on a major project (like basting a table cloth), I might have an assortment of very long needles, all pre threaded in the correct color. And due to the size of my project, I would have as many as fifteen needles threaded at one time. Overkill? Perhaps. Unless you are tired of bending over every hour, scouting the floor, or retrieving needles from the sole of your flip flops.
You will need to double thread your needles, or at least tie a single not in the end. (See thread knotting).
For convenience, I try to group similar colors together, though it's not critical (unless you have every hue of the rainbow up there). I don't. I have a palette of 22 colors that I work from, excluding metallics.
I also keep prethreaded needles in my mini sewing baskets. It's a real drag to have to stop and thread a needle when I just want to relax and sew something.
Hope this helps.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
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