FACT: Thread passes through the needle eye approximately 50 times before it becomes a stitch in the fabric.
What?!?!
This statement is TRUE!
It takes about 50 stitches for a one-stitch section of thread to transverse through the needle eye during its life span before it becomes a final stitch in the fabric. How is this possible? Try this experiment for yourself. (I had to! The first time I heard this outrageous statement from Hans Herzog, Chief Mechanic of Bernina of America, I thought he was nuts!)
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Thread the sewing machine with a spool of white thread.
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Using a felt tip marker, mark about one inch of the white thread somewhere between the spool and the first guide of the sewing machine. -
Set the stitch length to 2.2mm or 12 stitches per inch.
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Using a scrap of fabric to sew on, begin sewing. Keep your eye on the marked area of thread.
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You will need to sew about 9” to get the marked thread closer to the needle eye. At this time, start to turn the hand wheel by hand. The marked thread will allow you to see that the thread moves up and down through the needle eye as a stitch is being formed.
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As soon as the marked area touches the eye of the needle for the first time, start counting the stitches. -
Continue to sew slowly while counting.
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Watch as about 40-50 stitches later, the marked thread will be in the fabric!
Amazing! So why does this happen?
If you have a front loading bobbin, open up the front door of the bobbin case area. If you have a drop in bobbin, remove the bobbin door cover. Without any fabric in the machine AND while holding onto both the needle and bobbin threads with your left hand, turn your hand wheel to take one stitch slowly. During the stitch forming process you will see the needle thread being pulled by the hook down and around the bobbin, creating the link which connects the two threads together. A lot of thread is needed to loop around the bobbin case, about 5 – 6 inches. Then the take-up lever (hence the name), pulls the excess needle thread out of the bobbin area, pulls the stitch tight, and….Wa-La! You have ONE stitch!
As soon as all the stitch is pulled tight, the process repeats its self – the needle goes down, the thread is pulled around the bobbin, it is yanked back up by the take-up lever to incorporate one more stitch in the fabric. All of this happens as fast as you sew. It creates quite a see-saw back and forth motion for the thread going through the needle.
Now that you know thread gets quite a workout just to make ONE stitch, you can see now why it is so important to use quality thread. Inexpensive thread is twisted together with very short fibers. All this back and forth motion wears on the thread, and weakens the thread before it gets to its official duty of holding fabric together. Higher quality thread is made with long fibers, making it much stronger to endure the forces of being run back and forth through a needle eye at full speed.
Low quality cotton thread leaves a dusty layer of lint (and most everyone has seen this) on the presser foot, needle screw, thread guide and down below the throat plate, because the short fiber ends are being worn off by rubbing so much through the needle. It is also why some metallic threads fray out at the needle. (See a previous tip “Making the Most of Metallic Thread”).
For a lint free solution, select a thread like Superior Threads “So Fine” by John Flynn. This ultra fine, lint free thread is great for sewing, quilting and piecing. My favorite needle for this thread is a slim Schmetz Microtex Sharp size 70/10.
Try this thread experiment for yourself, and e-mail me, or log in to this website and leave your comments or just the fact that you tried it! Thanks!
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