Needles and pins are pretty useful in the construction of any garment, including doll clothes. You’re bound to have a basic supply already in your sewing room. Chances are, you may not need to add anything else.
Sewing Machine Needles
If you are sewing with a machine, you will need machine needles. They come in many sizes and types. You need to choose the correct needle for the job. Using the best needle also keeps your sewing machine in good working order.
Click here for a complete discussion of sewing machine needles.
Hand Sewing Needles
Hand sewing needles were invented in the stone age and were made of bone. They were large and were designed to sew leather. A sewer would punch holes along the seam line with an awl and sew the leather pieces together with her bone needle and sinew. Sewing is that old!
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, all sewing was done by hand with a needle and thread. The sewing machine was invented by Elias Howe, but sewers didn't have access to the sewing machine until Singer perfected sewing by machine and put one on the market.
Now we have a choice! But sewing by hand is still useful and has it's place.
Click here to find out all about hand sewing needles.
Thimbles and Beeswax
While some people may find these sewing tools not strictly necessary, I can't do without them. Try them and see if you don't agree!
Click here to find out all about Thimbles and Beeswax.
Sewing Pins
So what can you say about something so prosaic as a pin?
Sewing pins actually used to be very fiddly to make. They were made individually by hand by a metal worker or blacksmith, and because of all this work, were quite expensive. A housewife used to have to save up her money to buy them, and that is where we get the term “pin money.”
Nowadays, they’re not expensive and we can have as many as we like! But there are several types of pins that it’s handy to have.
I’ve noticed that sewing pins have got larger and longer over the years I’ve been sewing. I have some pins I had when I was a teen and they are pretty small by today’s standards—we’ve been “super-sized”!
Click here to find out about the best pins for sewing doll clothes.
Pin Cushions
You've got to keep your pins somewhere!
Click here to read about pin cushions.
Although there are a lot more different types of needles and pins out there, these basic ones should be all you need. And once you've got a collection, they last forever!