An Easy Project
I usually keep my needles in a strawberry emery. I learned years ago never to put my needles in a large tomato pin cushion. The needles will either vanish forever or work themselves out and surprise me with a prick when I’m trying to pin something together. Last week when I was writing about basic sewing tools, I cut a rectangle of black felt and arranged a selection of needles and a needle threader on it.
After the photo session, as I was putting the tools away, I found that I liked the black felt for needles. I decided to make a needle book.
My needle book is a bit thicker than most needle books, because I am going to try to keep most of my needles sorted in it.
I cut three rectangles of black felt and one rectangle of red felt for the cover. The cover is larger that the black rectangles. I placed the cover on the bottom and stacked the three black rectangles on top. I sewed a machine stitch down the middle of the stack to make a spine for the needle book.
I folded my felt stack on its spine of machine stitching to make a book. I glued appliques from my collection on the cover.
I sorted my needles by page. I put the needles that I use most often, size 8 embroidery needles, on the first page. I like that size for most hand sewing as well as most embroidery.
Sharps are on the next page. They have a smaller eye, so I put my needle threader on that page as well.
Longer needles have their own page. Large eyed tapestry needles for ribbon embroidery and other interesting things take up two pages. The last page is reserved for unusual needles like my curved upholstery needles. I don’t sew furniture. I like to sew little things, but I find a use for the curved needles occasionally.
My needles are all organized for the new year. Now all I need to do is refold all my fabric stacks.
