Needle Threading Tutorial

One of the bloggers I follow, Vesuviusmama, posted recently, "Were there any good embroidery needle threaders on the market?" I don't know if she found any but I decided to share how I thread my needles with embroidery floss without using a threader.

The pix are blurry because I had to hold the camera in one hand while holding the needle and floss in the other and contorting like a pretzel to get the right angle. And I have a crappy camera. Yeah, lets blame it on the camera. ;) Anyway, I hope that between the text and the pix, you can figure out what I'm trying to say here.

I draw the strands of floss out of the 6 ply thread, one at a time. I hold the 6 ply between my thumb and first finger--either hand--and draw out one strand while the rest of them bunch up. Don't worry, they don't tangle. Just straighten them out when you've got the first thread pulled out. Then draw out another if you need to. In the pix, I'm just using one thread.

If I'm using more than one strand, I put them together and then proceed with making a loop and I place the needle in the loop as shown.

Next, I hold the loop between my left thumb and first finger (I'm right handed so you lefties will have to do it your way) and snug it down between my fingers so only a teeny tiny bit of the thread shows--with the needle still in the teeny tiny loop.

Then, I draw the needle out of the loop leaving the thread snugged between my fingers. I thread that tiny loop into the eye of the needle instead of trying to get the end of the thread into the eye.

I won't say this works "every" time because I often have to repeat the looping and threading a few times until I get the loop in the eye. (of the needle I mean, not my eye. :)) I think the trick is to keep the tiny loop really tight around the needle before you draw out the needle. Anyway, I have much better luck threading needles this way--especially when embroidering--than trying to stick the end of the thread into the eye.

Then you just pull one end of the thread through the needle and you're ready to go.

I hope this is useful information. Try it and see if this works for you.

Barb H