Hand sewing needle guru needed
 

Back to sewing after a serious hand injury and my problem is finding needles that are long enough to push with my ring finger thimble. I've searched around the web but I can't find a chart that tells me what I need to be looking for. Think it is a milliners needle. I've measured "the needle" that works and it is 2.25 inches long. But when I look at packages they have a size range and all the needles are different lengths. I want them all long. Anyone know what I need?

Google long sewing needles. A lot of links came up. I use Milliner needles for all hand sewing. They are long and sharp.

I checked my Milliners needles #10, made by Tulip. They are only approx 1.5 in long. I do have some Dritz Quilter's Basting needles, size 7, that measure approx 2.5 that I got some years ago. Found them on the notions wall in a golden yellow package with a darker gold/brown band down the side. Dritz item #3047. http://www.dritz.com/product-search/....dq50TCTF.dpbs (looks like they changed the colors) They might be the ones you are looking for. Good luck finding what you need. I had a needle I loved using and when it got lost, I was lost. Never did find who made it.

Check out beading needles on Amazon. I think milliners needles are shorter than beading needles.

I was thinking same.

straw needles are long too, but they are thin and bend easily

So do the long beading needles.

Cari

I work with John James milliner size 10 needles, but they are 1.5" long. A size 3 milliner would be longer. The John James size 3 are 2.203" long. Size 1 measures 2.328" long. In my experience, that seems to be pretty standard across brands. The downside, of course, is that a Size 1 is twice as thick as a size 10, so you will end up with a larger hole.

Here's a link to the length & width of different sized milliner's on the John James website:
http://www.jjneedles.com/buy-needles...tml#size-guide
It's in millimeters, so you'll need to convert any measurements.

Thanks guys - especially Bree123 - for the link. Now I have a bit of an idea of what I'm looking for. I'm going to have to bite the bullet on the hole size because Mr. Tall man does not bend at the knuckles and not stitching is not an option. Now off to surf needlework pages to find some needles.

Would you be able to learn how to sew with your other hand?

It would probably be clumsy at first, but would it be possible?