What are the differences between sewing machine needles? I see some say 70 or 90 and some have 70/140 or something like that....what are these numbers?

Marcia

I have the same question. I never know what to use, except the heavy duty on for sewing jeans
Barb

I tried copying and pasting this chart, but lost the formatting - it explains what sizes to use for different fabrics.

Every needle package is marked with two numbers because the Europeans use a different numbering system than the US of A. Bigger numbers, bigger needles.

http://www.taunton.com/threads/pages/t00185.asp

Is a start.

tim in san jose

I buy mostly singer needles, each package tell you what fabric it is for. I usually pick a 14 for most sewing and then don't have to change it as much.....they usually have the european size as well on the packages