So you go to the store to buy needles for your sewing machine. You are going to find one of two things: a few "Universal" needles, or a large section with dozens of needle types.
"None of these say my machine brand on them," you think. "What do these numbers mean?"
I'm here to help you out!
It turns out that needles for sewing machines have amazing specialties to help make the work easier.
Ball point/Jersey: these needles have a rounded 'ball' point so that they don't accidentally cut the threads in a knit fabric. Ever cut a thread in a sweater? We don't want that to happen in a knit fabric either. Knits are used for t-shirts, Sweatshirts and the like.
Sharp/Microtex Sharp: My Beloved. If you sew on any woven fabric, and see "puckers" along your seam, you're not using a Sharp needle. Developed for micro-textiles, these are brilliant for printed quilting cotton, satin, woven silk, and the like.
Jeans/Denim: larger eye, bladed tip. The Sharp is a stiletto; a Denim needle is a sword. The bladed tip makes it easier for your machine to power through densely woven fabrics like canvas, upholstery fabrics, brocade, and old-fashioned denim.
Stretch: this needle is designed to sew on Elastic fabrics with minimal skipped stitches. Spandex and Lycra can stretch so well that they're carried by the needle into the bobbin area of the machine, preventing the stitch from completing. Stretch needles pass through the fabric easier without punching holes.
Quilting: Yep! There's a needle for this! Great for piecing, these really shine while sewing through the layers of fabric and batting. They make free lotion quilting a lot easier, and you won't have to fiddle with the tensions as much!
Leather: perfect for Vinyl, pleather 'vegan' leather, actual leather, and suede, this needle is like a Denim needle with a twist; a twisted blade, that is. It makes a perfectly round hole to prevent the dreaded "Tear along the dotted line" effect.
Metallic: yes, all needles are made of metal, but this type is gentle to metallic threads for decorative work.
Topstitch: this needle has an extra large eye and groove to accommodate heavier threads. Great for high-contrast visible topstitching with heavier threads.
There are others, but this is a good place to start. "Universal" needles don't have any of the specialized features listed above. They aren't sharp, aren't ball-pointed either. They have an average sized eye and groove.
They will sew. They will form a stitch, and they can be a lifesaver when you're not sure what kind of needle to use because you're sewing with more than one challenging fabric simultaneously. However, they aren't "good at" anything. They're kind of "equally bad" at everything.
Do yourself and your sewing machine a favor: Use the right needle for the right project.
Have you ever wanted to design something that could fly around the Moon? This is your opportunity. The Artemis II astronauts will use a zero gravity indicator during their mission to demonstrate when the Orion spacecraft has reached microgravity. This plushie needs to be soft, small, and importantly, remind us of home. The Moon Mascot contest challenges people of all ages from all over the world to submit a design to be made by NASA’s Thermal Blanket Lab and flown aboard Artemis II. To submit a design for the contest, visit: freelancer.com/moon-mascot
btw I've found these stretches from the WAK blog very helpful when knitting a lot:
Plus make sure to take breaks regularly - and stop if anything starts to hurt!
especially with gift knitting I know it can be tempting to push through it for a deadline, but it's really not worth causing long term injury. (And anyone knit-worthy should be understanding of that, imho.) Stay well :)
Hey i’m a fashion design student so i have tons and tons of pdfs and docs with basic sewing techniques, pattern how-tos, and resources for fabric and trims. I’ve compiled it all into a shareable folder for anyone who wants to look into sewing and making their own clothing. I’ll be adding to this folder whenever i come across new resources
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16uhmMb8kE4P_vOSycr6XSa9zpmDijZSd?usp=sharing
Knit An Army of Caterpillars! Pattern by Miranda Harp: 👉 https://buff.ly/3uZP4WE 🐛
Canada Day is Coming ... Knit or Crochet a Mesmerizing Maple Leaf Shawl: 👉 https://buff.ly/2Tq7fqv
if you want to see an amazing Star Trek "musical episode," it's The Abduction from the Seraglio staged by the Pacific Opera project. Complete with redshirt orchestra, horny Spock, a Gorn battle, and Klingons doing bat'leth dance choreography.
The plot and score is the same, just rewritten into English and Trek-ified. (Spock's got a whole aria about his human vs. Vulcan struggle. “Yes, my blood is really green. But how much does that mean? Still, I cannot deny my fears. Am I human with weird ears? I’m a Vulcan. I'm a Vulcan!”"
and if you don't have the patience for a 2-hour opera, someone put together a 30 minute highlight reel of a different performance (by the same company, just a different year. there's some casting changes too):
when i say my gender changes to the tune of the bit i mean a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do and if he can’t then god forbid women do anything
i dont consider myself a 'fashion guru' by any means but one thing i will say is guys you dont need to know the specific brand an item you like is - you need to know what the item is called. very rarely does a brand matter, but knowing that pair of pants is called 'cargo' vs 'boot cut' or the names of dress styles is going to help you find clothes you like WAAAYYYY faster than brand shopping
For all my bug lovers out there 🐛❤️
I’ve teased it. You’ve waited. I’ve procrastinated. You’ve probably forgotten all about it.
But now, finally, I’m here with my solarpunk resources masterpost!
YouTube Channels:
Andrewism
The Solarpunk Scene
Solarpunk Life
Solarpunk Station
Our Changing Climate
Podcasts:
The Joy Report
How To Save A Planet
Demand Utopia
Solarpunk Presents
Outrage and Optimisim
From What If To What Next
Solarpunk Now
Idealistically
The Extinction Rebellion Podcast
The Landworkers' Radio
Wilder
What Could Possibly Go Right?
Frontiers of Commoning
The War on Cars
The Rewild Podcast
Solacene
Imagining Tomorrow
Books (Fiction):
Ursula K. Le Guin: The Left Hand of Darkness The Dispossessed The Word for World is Forest
Becky Chambers: A Psalm for the Wild-Built A Prayer for the Crown-Shy
Phoebe Wagner: When We Hold Each Other Up
Phoebe Wagner, Bronte Christopher Wieland: Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation
Brenda J. Pierson: Wings of Renewal: A Solarpunk Dragon Anthology
Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro: Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World
Justine Norton-Kertson: Bioluminescent: A Lunarpunk Anthology
Sim Kern: The Free People’s Village
Ruthanna Emrys: A Half-Built Garden
Sarina Ulibarri: Glass & Gardens
Books (Non-fiction):
Murray Bookchin: The Ecology of Freedom
George Monbiot: Feral
Miles Olson: Unlearn, Rewild
Mark Shepard: Restoration Agriculture
Kristin Ohlson: The Soil Will Save Us
Rowan Hooper: How To Spend A Trillion Dollars
Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing: The Mushroom At The End of The World
Kimberly Nicholas: Under The Sky We Make
Robin Wall Kimmerer: Braiding Sweetgrass
David Miller: Solved
Ayana Johnson, Katharine Wilkinson: All We Can Save
Jonathan Safran Foer: We Are The Weather
Colin Tudge: Six Steps Back To The Land
Edward Wilson: Half-Earth
Natalie Fee: How To Save The World For Free
Kaden Hogan: Humans of Climate Change
Rebecca Huntley: How To Talk About Climate Change In A Way That Makes A Difference
Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac: The Future We Choose
Jonathon Porritt: Hope In Hell
Paul Hawken: Regeneration
Mark Maslin: How To Save Our Planet
Katherine Hayhoe: Saving Us
Jimmy Dunson: Building Power While The Lights Are Out
Paul Raekstad, Sofa Saio Gradin: Prefigurative Politics
Andreas Malm: How To Blow Up A Pipeline
Phoebe Wagner, Bronte Christopher Wieland: Almanac For The Anthropocene
Chris Turner: How To Be A Climate Optimist
William MacAskill: What We Owe To The Future
Mikaela Loach: It's Not That Radical
Miles Richardson: Reconnection
David Harvey: Spaces of Hope Rebel Cities
Eric Holthaus: The Future Earth
Zahra Biabani: Climate Optimism
David Ehrenfeld: Becoming Good Ancestors
Stephen Gliessman: Agroecology
Chris Carlsson: Nowtopia
Jon Alexander: Citizens
Leah Thomas: The Intersectional Environmentalist
Greta Thunberg: The Climate Book
Jen Bendell, Rupert Read: Deep Adaptation
Seth Godin: The Carbon Almanac
Jane Goodall: The Book of Hope
Vandana Shiva: Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture
Amitav Ghosh: The Great Derangement
Minouche Shafik: What We Owe To Each Other
Dieter Helm: Net Zero
Chris Goodall: What We Need To Do Now
Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Stephanie Foote: The Cambridge Companion To The Environmental Humanities
Bella Lack: The Children of The Anthropocene
Hannah Ritchie: Not The End of The World
Chris Turner: How To Be A Climate Optimist
Kim Stanley Robinson: Ministry For The Future
Fiona Mathews, Tim Kendall: Black Ops & Beaver Bombing
Jeff Goodell: The Water Will Come
Lynne Jones: Sorry For The Inconvenience But This Is An Emergency
Helen Crist: Abundant Earth
Sam Bentley: Good News, Planet Earth!
Timothy Beal: When Time Is Short
Andrew Boyd: I Want A Better Catastrophe
Kristen R. Ghodsee: Everyday Utopia
Elizabeth Cripps: What Climate Justice Means & Why We Should Care
Kylie Flanagan: Climate Resilience
Chris Johnstone, Joanna Macy: Active Hope
Mark Engler: This is an Uprising
Anne Therese Gennari: The Climate Optimist Handbook
Magazines:
Solarpunk Magazine
Positive News
Resurgence & Ecologist
Ethical Consumer
Films (Fiction):
How To Blow Up A Pipeline
The End We Start From
Woman At War
Black Panther
Star Trek
Tomorrowland
Films (Documentary):
2040: How We Can Save The Planet
The People vs Big Oil
Wild Isles
The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
Generation Green New Deal
Planet Earth III
Video Games:
Terra Nil
Animal Crossing
Gilded Shadows
Anno 2070
Stardew Valley
RPGs:
Solarpunk Futures
Perfect Storm
Advocacy Groups:
A22 Network
Extinction Rebellion
Greenpeace
Friends of The Earth
Green New Deal Rising
Apps:
Ethy
Sojo
BackMarket
Depop
Vinted
Olio
Buy Nothing
Too Good To Go
Websites:
European Co-housing
UK Co-housing
US Co-housing
Brought By Bike (connects you with zero-carbon delivery goods)
ClimateBase (find a sustainable career)
Environmentjob (ditto)
Businesses (🤢):
Ethical Superstore
Hodmedods
Fairtransport/Sail Cargo Alliance
Let me know if you think there’s anything I’ve missed!