 Hey, this is Amber and welcome to Inside the Hem. In today's episode, I want to talk a little bit about sewing machine needles. There's a system of numbering that can be a little confusing the first time you're looking at needles. And you can buy needles with a variety of needle sizes, or you can buy a pack that's all the same needle size. And I'm going to show you an up close of a pack that's got a whole bunch of different sizes. And you can see on the bottom of the numbering where it goes from smaller to higher. Your smaller numbers are going to be a thinner needle, which is good for a finer fabric. When you get up to the higher numbers, it is more of a heavy-duty needle, which is good for a heavier version of that fabric. So say you're sewing with a cotton, you're going to use a finer needle and something like a batiste or a voile. And when you get up to the higher numbers, you're going to use a heavier cotton or even something thicker, maybe even like a canvas. And the middle range would be good for something in the middle of that. And that's true with any type of needle. So say you're sewing knits, you would start with a lightweight knit, toward the bottom of the scale, and move up to a medium-weight knit, and then a heavier-weight knit like the Ponty would be with the higher number. The difference between those two numbering systems is just metric versus empirical. So you can use whichever system you prefer. It's gonna relate the same just lower to higher. The most common type of needle is your universal needle. Now it can be used with knits or woven because it's got a slightly rounded point to it, but as you'll find, sometimes there are better needles to use. I'd still go to this for sewing something like a basic shirt. I've got this cotton shirting that I want to sew a button down with and I'll probably use a universal needle for this. The next one I got is actually one of my new favorites. It's really improved my stitching if I sew something like a rayon or a silk is really good. And this is your Microtex or sharp needle. It's got a really fine point. So it's really great for piercing the fabric. It makes a really fine stitch. And I've got some silk here that I want to sew a top with and I would definitely use this Microtex for that. The next type of needle that I've got here is your jersey or ballpoint needle and that's good for a jersey knit that's not too stretchy. So I've got this pink soft cotton blend knit that I'll probably make a top out of and that'll be really good for this jersey ballpoint needle. Now if you've got a stretchier fabric like this one, see how it stretches so much? This would be good for like a yoga pant and actually I've already made a pair of yoga pants out of this that I gave to my sister-in-law and for that one you'd want to use this stretch needle and it just works a little bit better at piercing this really tightly tightly knit fabric and that helps not make tears in the fabric. So that's gonna be your stretch needle. The next I've got is a twin needle and this is actually a stretched twin needle. So I could use this for hemming any a stretchy knit fabric like that. It's really good if you don't own a cover stitch machine. This is something that you can try. I like it for actually I did the hems of this shirt with the stretched twin needles. That's really good. It's a little bit pricier so you want to take care of it, but you can use it multiple times. Next I've got here. This is a jeans denim needle and so I've got some denim here, which I've actually already cut jeans from. Actually I'm wearing them, but you can't see. So this is a jeans needle. It's a lot more heavy-duty, great for piercing this thicker denim fabric. But if you're gonna do top stitching on your jeans, I'd really recommend using a top stitching needle. I've done one pair of jeans using a denim needle for the top stitching and it started skipping stitches, but switching to a top stitching needle really solved that problem. So that's one thing you should definitely try is a dedicated top stitching needle. And then the last thing I have at the bottom of my sewing machine needle box is the screwdriver. Because that's one way I'm gonna keep it handy. It's in there with all my needles, so when I want to change my needle, it's right there, ready for me to use. Now I usually change my needle after each project and I'll flip the needle over to the reverse side, which you can see right here. And that means that I could use it another time if I'm sewing something like a muslin, but then after that I'll switch to a new needle. Thanks for watching today. I hope you found something helpful. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below. If you liked the video, I'd love it if you gave us a thumbs up. You can subscribe to us so that you don't miss any videos and also follow us on social. We're at Inside the Hemp and thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.