Blog

Enjoy sewing with confidence with Beissel top quality Needles. 1 Needle Always use Beissel Universal (130-705 HU Universal) needle. This is the ideal needle for all general purpose sewing. Home sewing needles run at speeds up to 750 stitches per minute and even that in most cases sewing is intermittent. So, they are nickel plated which has served well for as long as one can remember. Chrome is harmful to environment because of the effluent the plating generates. Avoid any chrome plated needles for regular home sewing. 2 Needle   The needle point is likely to become dull after about…

(Left – “Klenkes” (statue in Aachen, Germany, erected in honour of workers in Needle factories who separated the good and bad needles with their little fingers) Right- Mr S Ganesh, founder of Altek Beissel Needles Limited.) Sewing machine needle factory in India becomes a reality Between the years 1992 and 95, Mr. Ganesh made several  visits to Aachen, Germany, in single minded pursuit of setting up India’s first sewing machine needle factory. Mr Ganesh is a Chartered Accountant, Cost Accountant and Company Secretary with decades of experience in setting up new projects. The drive of Lammertz and Mr Ganesh in their respective goals…

Even in the dawn of history, the instinct of self-preservation urged man to make tools, weapons, build dwellings, unveil the secret of fire and last but not least make clothes. It is quite conceivable that, even in those days, the clothes were joined together or closed with bone awls. These awls may have also been used for pre-stitching when sinews, bast fibres or leather strips were pulled through the “sewing material”. Thus, awls (fig. 001) can be regarded as the origin of brooches, pins, safety pins and finally of sewing machine needles. 28000 BC A development of the awl is made…

The formation of a stitch begins when the needle penetrates the fabric and descends to its lowest point. The bobbin hook then slides by the needles scarf, catching the upper thread, and carries it around the bobbin and bobbin thread. The thread is then pulled up into the fabric and completing the stitch. Sewing machine manufacturers want their machines to consistently produce a perfect stitch, so the needle’s configuration is engineered to manage thread and fabric to reduce skipped stitches. Each needle type produces a stitch by sewing a uniquely designed groove, scarf, eye and/point to enable the needle and…

“Reduce, Reuse, And Recycle” T-shirt Pillow Supplies: Scissor, some old soft clothes, Iron (iron on transfer paper), Batting, Fabric glue or sewing Step-1: Find one of your child’s outgrown T-shirts. Wash and dry. Step-2: Choose the appropriate iron-on image and the type of iron-on transfer paper based on the colour of your fabric. For dark-coloured fabrics, print the non-reversed iron-on onto transfer paper for dark clothing. The image is ironed onto the fabric face up. For lighter fabrics, print the reverse image iron-on onto transfer paper for light clothing. The image is ironed facedown onto the fabric. Cut out the…

The history of needles begins at Redditch, England, in 16th century The history of needles began, not in Aachen, Germany, but Redditch, a short distance away from Birmingham, England. The story begins in 16th century and Redditch went on to become world famous for its high quality hand sewing needles. Sewing Machine itself was to be discovered three centuries later. At its peak, 90% of the world’s hand sewing needles were produced at Redditch. There were more than 100 Hand Sewing Needle companies employing 15,000 persons by 19th century. The variety of hand sewing needles displayed boggles the mind –…

I had always connected the city of Redditch as the hometown of ENTACO Ltd,  the last of the Hand Sewing Machine needle company in England. It was only recently that I learnt that Redditch was the epicentre of all the dramatic developments in hand sewing needle making for hundreds of years beginning 16th century. The western religious texts supposedly mentions needle as one of the five tools brought to Paradise by Adam! The trend for grand personal adornment by garments was quite the rage in 16thcentury and needles were in demand. Around the 1600s it was an exotic and rare…