How To Thread A Needle, Tie A knot In the Thread, Use Safety Pins, Store And Link Safety Pins

Choosing Needle Size

First choose your needle.

I try to pick a needle with a large eye. But not so large that it leaves a big hole in the fabric. Nor a hole which lets the thread slip through. 

Storing needles and threads

I just re-organized one of my many sewing boxes, a small one, with only four compartments. I put the needle threader in the same compartment as the needles. 

The threads went in the large compartment. 

Wire Needle Threader

I like the little wife needle threaders with a flexible diamond shape end and a round piece for holding it.

You thread the wire through the needle.

If you can't see the eye, hold the needle against a light or white piece of paper. If you cannot hold the needle steady, instead of holding the needle in midair horizontally and rotating the eye, press the point downwards into a piece of white paper, so the eye is visible and still.

Choosing Thread Thickness & Colour

The thread colour looks neater if it matches the colour of the fabric. you could make a deliberate contrast if you were doing embroidery, or sewing a long line of very neat stitches.

Knotting The Thread

1 After threading the needle with the thread, I hold the end of the thread between my forefinger and thumb.

2 Then wind the end of the thread twice around my left-hand forefinger. 

3 Then I put the end of the needle under the double loop, using the nearest shallow edge of the left hand finger nail as a guide. 

4 I pull the loop gradually, moving it down towards the end of the thread where it forms a double knot about a centimeter from the end. My grasp ensures I do not push the knot off the end. If the hanging tail of cotton below the knot is too long, I can either cut it shorter later, if it shows. Or sew it down with a back stitch. 

5 Alternatively, cut it shorter now, before starting to sew.

6 If the thread pulls through the fabric, either you need to tie another knot over the first. Or tie both ends of the cotton together to make double thickness cotton thread as well as another thicker knot.

Linking Safety Pins

Safety pins went in another. I linked the safety pins together. Big ones all together, linked. Middle size safety pins, smallest safety pins.

there are several ways of sorting safety pins. You can put all the small ones on one large one. You can link them all onto one. Or you can link each one to another in a long chain. 

Then you have to be sure that linking them together does not take more room and stop the lid from closing.