Did you know that sewing machine needle wear out quickly and need to be replaced?
Most guidelines say to replace them after 4-6 hours of use, or every project.
Most people do not do this.
A worn out needle gets microscopic burrs and nicks and fractures – all of which will impact your sewing.
Whenever someone contacts me with a sewing problem, my first question is almost always, “Have your tried changing your needle?”
It’s the “Have you tried turning your computer off and on again?” of the sewing world. 😂
An old needle can cause skipped stitches, wobbly stitches, little nests of thread on the bottom of your stitching, broken thread, tension problems, snagged fabric, and more.
It can also cause fraying on the edges of your raw edge applique.
Take a look at the itty bitty lemming on this block.
If you want to see it closer, click on the image so you can zoom in. (You may need to right click the image and choose Open Image in New Tab, depending on your operating system.)
I used the same fabrics for both the moose and the lemming, the same fusible adhesive, carefully fused for the correct amount of time.
But the edges of the lemming are all frayed!
It’s not because it’s smaller pieces. It’s because my needle was so dull it was basically punching through the fabric, forcing the fibers apart.
Tip – when your needle gets super dull you can actually hear the difference. It sounds like it’s… well, like it’s punching through the fabric. I can’t think of any other way to describe it.
Sewing through heavier fabrics will make a needle wear out faster. So will sewing through paper – just like using your fabric scissors on paper will dull them.
Keep an old pill bottle by my machine to hold the spent needles, and don’t hesitate to change them frequently! Change them with every new project, and change them any time your machine acts “weird” and you can’t figure out what’s wrong.
Needles are cheap compared to having to redo something because a dull one messed it up. 🙁