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Needle Size Recommendations for Needle Felting/Punching Machines

When sewing with your sewing/embroidery machine, there are advantages to using different sizes and styles of needles. The same is true with felting needles. Just Felt Like It gives you the option of using needles that are the best size and style for your machine needle felting/punching projects. To choose the correct needles size, you need to know a few things about felting needles.

Felting needles are not sized like sewing needles, but rather like wire. Where a size 11 sewing needle is thinner than a size 14, a size 38 felting needle is thicker than a size 42 felting needle. With sewing needles, you are also concerned about the size of the eye of the needle. With felting needles, you need to be concerned with the needle shape and the type of barb. Sometimes, you will be working with only fibers (roving, yarn, etc.) and a stabilizer (like Vilene water soluble stabilizer.) Sometimes, you will be punching fabrics into another foundation fabric such as denim, duck cloth or canvas. Other times, you may want to just texturize a fabric without using a foundation fabric or stabilizer such as when you want to use a fabric for machine embroidery. It is most important that you think about using the correct needle size when you are working with fibers/roving and a stabilizer or when you are texturizing a fabric without the use of a foundation fabric. When you use a foundation fabric, you may find that size 38-40 needles will work for most all of you projects.

Barbs are the small notches in the felting needle that allows the needle to push fibers from the top of your project through the lower layers so that they will lock in place without thread. Different needles have different size and configurations of barbs. Most felting needles are shaped like triangles and have barbs on the three edges. Others are shaped like a 4 sided star and have barbs on 4 sides. To make it even more complicated, different needles have fewer or more barbs than others and place the barbs further from or closer to the tip of the needle. If after reading this you are ready to give up on understanding felting needles, don’t dismay. Here are some suggestions that will help you choose the right needle for your job.

Size 40 triangular needles are the needles that come with your Babylock Embellisher. They are a good general purpose needle. When you don’t know which needle to use, start with a size 40 triangular needle. In your Sampler Package, there are two types of size 40 needles. The Size 40 triangular needle has three barbs on each edge of the needle. The Size 40 triangular Close Barb needle has four barbs on each side of the needle. The extra barbs means allow you machine to push more fibers through with each rotation which allows you to complete your project more quickly. You can use these needles interchangeably for most projects, but if you are making felt from roving, the close barb needle will cut your felting time.

The Janome XPresssion (FM-725) comes with a 5 needle unit that uses size 36 needles. These are coarser than the needles that come with the Embellisher. Since they are thicker and have larger barbs than the felting needles with higher numbers, it may result in larger holes than when using machines that use a thinner needle. Janome has recently come out with a new needle holder that allows for the replacement of needles individually. The replacement needle holder costs approximately $40.00 and is available from your local dealer.

Size 38 triangular needles are thicker than size 40 triangular needles and the barbs are also larger. So, if you are working with a project with coarser fibers, you will find that a size 38 triangular needle will do a better job for you. I also like to use size 38 needles when I am texturizing fabrics because the larger barb creates more texture. Size 38 Star needles are different in design from the standard triangular needles. Instead of having 3 barbs on 3 sides, this needle has 3 barbs on 4 sides. With more barbs going in on each revolution of the machine, it allows you to work faster. But this needle has an added bonus. The holes that it leaves are smaller and it is stronger by design than any of the triangular needles. I highly recommend using size 38 Star needles when you are working with thick materials such as those made from recycled felted sweaters that you want to embellisher with your Babylock Embellisher.

Size 42 triangular needles are the thinnest needles that we currently sell. They are best used when working with tightly woven fabrics made with very think threads or fibers (such as china silk). I love to use this fabric after texturizing it on my Embellisher as the background for my machine embroidery designs. If you are punching a thin fabric and find that you are breaking lots of needles, that is a great indication that you should switch to size 42 triangular needles.

And remember, just like your sewing machine needle becomes dull over time, your felting needles need to be replaced even if they do not break. When needles begin to take longer to get the same result, it is time to change them all for a new set. With my sewing machine, when something goes wrong, my needle is the first thing that I change, followed by my bobbin and thread. With a needle felting/punching machine, there is no bobbin or thread, so the needle is that much more important.

You can also check for more complete guideline and recommendations on www.justfeltlikeit.com beginning in March 2008 Look for these needles at your local dealer or on-line at www.tryourdesigns.com. As you use these needles, if you have questions, you can contact me at dsspanos@aol.com and I will do my best to answer your questions.

This document is copyrighted by Denise Spanos on December 25, 2007. All Rights Reserved. To copy, distribute, modify, reproduce, or post to other websites, permission must first be obtained from the copyright holder. Denise Spanos can be contacted at tryourdesigns@aol.com

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Needle Size Recommendations for Needle Felting/Punching Machines