A sewing needle is a long slender tool with a pointed tip. The first needles were made of bone or wood; modern ones are manufactured from high carbon steel wire, nickel- or 18K gold plated for corrosion resistance. The highest quality embroidery needles are plated with two-thirds platinum and one-thirds titanium alloy. Traditionally, needles have been kept in needle books or needle cases which have become an object of adornment. Sewing needles can also be kept in an etui, a small box that held needles and other items such as scissors, pencils and tweezers.
A needle for hand sewing has a hole, called the eye at the blunt end to carry thread or cord through the fabric after the pointed end pierces it.
Read more about Sewing Needle: Types of Hand Sewing Needles, Needles in Archaeology
Famous quotes containing the words sewing and/or needle:
“The sewing machine joins what the scissors have cut asunder, plus whatever else comes in its path.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Think how stood the white pine tree on the shore of the Chesuncook, its branches soughing with the four winds, and every individual needle trembling in the sunlight,—think how it stands with it now,—sold, perchance, to the New England Friction-Match Company!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)