Are you looking for the best hand sewing needles? Let me help you!
I can be somewhat referred to as a “needle nerd,” so a lot of people ask me what needles I use for hand stitching. I believe most of it comes down to personal preference. Usually, I would buy brand-new needles to experiment with, but even for me, picking the finest ones is sometimes difficult. So, if you want to quilt or bind by hand, I would suggest that you choose the right needle for the job.
High-quality hand sewing needles make clothing repairs quite simple and even guarantee that the fabric won’t catch or fray during the procedure.
Whether you prefer long or short needles, choosing the best needle for the job will undoubtedly improve the quality of your stitches and give you a satisfying sewing experience!There are many different types of specialty hand needles available. You can view all of the available sizes and varieties by following the links provided below. Here are a few to consider:
Top Picks For The Best Hand Sewing Needles
Best Overall: SINGER 01125 Assorted Hand Needles (jump to review)
Best for Kids: Hesmartly Large Eye Hand Sewing Needles (jump to review)
Best for Professionals: Bohin Sharps Hand Needles (jump to review)
Best for Heavy-work: Dritz Heavy Duty Hand Needles (jump to review)
Best for Denim: SINGER 01025 Heavy Duty Hand Needles (jump to review)
Best for Leather: Hekisn Professional Leather Stitching Needle (jump to review)
Best for Thick Fabric: SINGER 01824 Large Eye Hand Needles (jump to review)
Detailed reviews of the Best Hand Sewing Needles
This is a wonderful buy if you are looking for the needle size that you feel most comfortable using or you have just started a sewing project. The Singer 01125 hand needles are of high quality, and each pack has a variety of eye sizes, widths, and lengths. These needles are made of steel that is nickel-plated for rust resistance and strength. With these different hand sewing needles, you can easily check the length and size of the eye. Depending on the specific task at hand, these needles come in various sizes and lengths, such as those for embroidering, hemming pants, sewing up minor holes in clothing, and so forth.
- The inclusion of 45 hand sewing needles is ideal for everyday sewing tasks
- Several projects can be handled because of its numerous sizes
- The tips might not be sufficiently sharp
Hand sewing needles from Hesmartly are an excellent choice for young crafters. These large-eye hand needles are difficult to break, sturdy, and made from both plastic and steel. These needles can be used for sewing as well as for creative tasks like kids' handiwork, cross-stitching, and knitting. The steel needles are composed of sturdy materials; hence, they are very robust. They do not bend or rust and are convenient to use.
Kids can use the plastic needles instead if an adult makes a hole first with the steel needles that are provided on the canvas.
Additionally, they have fine, smooth tips. These hand needles are light and portable, and the easy-to-thread, large needle size makes it simple to carry.
- Easy to thread
- Affordable
- The plastic needles are fine, but the metal needles might be exceedingly brittle.
The Bohin Sharps hand needles are made in France. These are excellent needles to use for any professional sewing project. They also work beautifully for "regular" sewing. These hand needles are made from nickel-plated steel and are of high quality. They function flawlessly with basic light-weight and medium-weight sewing. The nicest feature of these needles is their triple polishing, which results in a glass-like, narrow tip that can readily pass through any type of fabric. It's great, and anyone who wants to buy big-eye hand needles might find it helpful. You can appreciate the huge needle eye since it makes it very simple to thread the needle.
These needles come in 50 different sizes. To easily find the size you need for each time you sew, it is convenient to store the needles in separate transparent storage containers.
These long-lasting, durable, and sturdy hand needles are made from a strong iron alloy. These needles are ideal for hand-made stitching, quilting, and sewing.
- There is a variety of lengths and widths available in the needles
- Even the tiniest size needle have a huge threading eye
- These needles might not be for someone searching for incredibly thin needles
These heavy-duty hand needles are of excellent quality. They are simple to use and are so strong that they hold up pretty well on tough cloth. The good news is that they can handle a wide range of repairs flawlessly. When you have the right tools, like Dritz hand needles, you can easily fix a seam that is hard to get to. They are the ideal needles for upholstery, tapestries, and many different projects. There are 7 needles available, with all of them having different designs and sizes. These needles are of very high caliber and can cut through a variety of denser materials. I personally fix my plush animals very easily using these bent needles.
- Ideal for manual stitching of patches
- With this kit, various range of needle forms and sizes can be obtained
- Might break if applied excess force
The Singer 01025 hand needles can be used efficiently for crafting and sewing purposes. They are useful for a variety of tasks and are best for sewing denim. The holes are big enough for the fringe thread to fit in without any trouble, and the needles are strong enough to go through the fabric without bending or piercing your finger.
These sets of needles come in a nice all-in-one package that includes one of each of the following: a leather needle, a canvas needle, a sail needle, and a carpet needle. It also includes two upholstery needles.
It is made from steel that has been nickel-plated. Most of these needles are used for heavy-duty work like bookbinding, and they are long-lasting and incredibly strong.
- A typical set of strong and good needles
- Different needle size available
- On a hard surface, they might sound metallic, although the interior appears to be plastic
The Hekisn Large-Eye Hand Needles are expert leather craft tools that are durable enough for leather works and can be used every day. These leather needles are made from high quality stainless steel, are corrosion-free, and are constructed with a nonporous surface. They have a thick shaft, a triangular shaped point, and an unusually large eye.
Threading yarn through these needles by hand is simple, even for someone with impaired vision or eye-hand coordination. Another thing about them is that they don't rust easily, which means they can last for a longer time.
These sewing needles are easy to store. They come with a transparent storage container that makes them simple to carry around with you while keeping the needles tidy and safe.
- There are no noticeable stitch holes left by the needles
- Highly efficient for stitching leather
- The needles are extremely sharp, so has to be cautious
For sewers working on thick fabrics or using heavy-duty thread, this pair of 12 chenille large-eye hand needles is ideal. The assortment of these hand needles has a thick shaft, a point that is sharp, and extra-long eyes. A bundle comes with twelve hand needles with ornamental magnets. To make retrieving simpler, you can keep the needles together on the attractive magnet. You can attach the ornamental magnet along with the needles to another metal base and keep them closer to you so that you never lose your sewing needles again.
They come in needle sizes varying from 18 through 22. They are made from steel that has been nickel-plated for rust resistance and strength.
- The magnet is powerful enough
- The needle's thickness is of the right length, neither too thin nor too long
- The blunt needle point can hurt sometimes
Buying Guide – Hand sewing needles
Before delving into hand sewing needles, it’s important to understand the distinction between hand and sewing machine needles.
Hand Sewing Needles vs Sewing Machine Needles
Before discussing the differences between hand and machine sewing needles, let’s first take a look at the similarities. (For more detailed reviews of sewing machine needles, visit our post ‘Best Sewing Machine Needles’
Regardless of whether you are using a hand or machine needle, they all have some common ground… starting with the point:
- Ball point – used for knit fabrics. The ball point does not separate the fibers, stretching them out of shape, but rather goes around and between them, retaining the integrity of the fabric.
- Regular or Universal point – ideal for light to heavyweight woven fabrics. Universal point needles go through, not around the fibers within the woven fabric. Needle size is determined by the weight of the fabric to be sewn. (see fabric table for details)
Types of hand sewing needles
There are numerous varieties of hand sewing needles:
- Sharp needles: They are all-purpose reliable needles with a medium length, a rounded eye, and a pointed tip.
- Embroidery needles: Embroidery needles have sharp tips and longer eyes making it simpler to thread embroidery floss and thick thread.
- Quilting needles: Quilting needles are thin and short for accurate and quick sewing.
- Tapestry needles: Big needles, blunt ends, and big eyes characterize tapestry needles.
Some Guidelines for Hand Sewing Needles
The success of your project hinges on choosing the correct hand sewing needle for the style, thread, and cloth, just like it does with sewing machine needles. A considerably more straightforward design is a hand sewing needle. It features an “eye” on one end and a “tip” on the other. The type and size of a hand needle will affect its length. A larger needle usually has a greater length than a smaller needle. The “eye” differs both in shape and size depending on the needle type. The size numbers of hand sewing needles are different from sewing machine needles. The size of the hand needle denotes its diameter, much like with machine needles. However, on hand needles, the bigger the size number denotes a smaller needle. This is contrary to sewing machine needles.
Depending upon the task, you will find that hand sewing needles may look alike, but are vastly different. Typically, hand sewing needles all have a sharp point on one end and an eye for the thread to pass through at the other. That, however, is where the similarity ends. Hand sewing needles may all look alike, but they are quite different. Some of these differences are visible to the naked eye. Others, however, may require a magnifying glass or microscope to detect. They are used for quilting, beading, upholstery, embroidery and countless other tasks. The following table describes some of the most popular types of hand sewing needles.
| Needle Type | Use | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Beading | Attaching sequins to fabric; stringing beads for jewelry – necklaces/bracelets/ anklets | Long thin needle with a medium sized eye, somewhat flexible |
| Chenille | Ribbon/yarn/embroidery floss | Long thick needle with an eye large enough to use several strands of embroidery floss or yarn at one time. |
| Darning | Mending holes … usually in wool socks, sweaters and jackets. | Long, average thickness with large. Darning needles sometimes vary in length, but generally all darning needles have the same thickness and large eyes to accommodate yarn when necessary. |
| Self threading | General use – seams, hemming, attaching buttons | Self threading needles vary in length and thickness. The primary difference between these needles and all others is that there is a slit at the eye to allow thread to go into the eye without having to be threaded as with traditional hand needles. |
| Embroidery | Decorative hand embroidery and crewel* stitching. | Average length and thickness with a large eye to accommodate embroidery floss and yarn. |
| Leather | Sewing leather, buckskin and suede. Hand leather needles are used primarily for decorative top stitching and for adding shank buttons to leather, buckskin and suede garments and accessories. | Varying length and thickness; triangular point; small eye. |
| Milliners’ needles | Decorative stitching, pleating and basting | Longer versions of sharp needles (see below) |
| Sharps | General sewing, hemming, etc. | Sharp point, medium length, round eye. |
| Carpet sharps | Working with rugs and carpets | Longer and thicker than regular sharps. |
| Tapestry | Embroidery, needlepoint, decorative stitches on thick or loose weave fabric. | Long needle with a large eye and blunt tip. |
| Upholstery | Tufting; working with thick upholstery fabric; tying off quilts. | Thick curved or straight needles. Curved upholstery needles are used when working with a straight needle is awkward. Straight upholstery needles can be from 3 to 12 inches long. Curved upholstery needles vary in length from 1 ½ to 6 inches. |
* Crewel stitching is a form of hand embroidery that includes decorative knotting to give texture to hand embroidered projects.
Sewing Machine Needles
As a general rule, you should always choose a needle point that makes it easy to pierce the fabric you’re using and a needle size that matches the thickness of the thread you’re using.. The needles used in sewing machines and sergers are different from those used for hand sewing in that the eye and the point are at the same end. The opposite end of the needle is usually flat on at least one side for insertion in the needle bar of the sewing machine. The size and shape of the insertion end depend largely upon the sewing machine manufacturer. Read our detailed post on the best sewing machines needles to know more
Sewing Insight – Summary
So this is our top choices for the best hand sewing needles. Enjoy!
- Best Overall: SINGER 01125 Assorted Hand Needles (jump to review)
- Best for Kids: Hesmartly Large Eye Hand Sewing Needles (jump to review)
- Best for Professionals: Bohin Sharps Hand Needles (jump to review)
- Best for Heavy-work: Dritz Heavy Duty Hand Needles (jump to review)
- Best for Denim: SINGER 01025 Heavy Duty Hand Needles (jump to review)
- Best for Leather: Hekisn Professional Leather Stitching Needle (jump to review)
- Best for Thick Fabric: SINGER 01824 Large Eye Hand Needles (jump to review)
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