Introduction: Make Your Own Needle Threader

About: Retired, doing art work now. Great. Have the time and the money to spend doing what I want to do.

A small but significant problem had while sewing is threading the needle.  Especially as you get up in years, and the eyes are not what they "should" be, when you are tired late at night but have a project that absolutely has to get done, it just gets hard to thread the needle. Here is a simple solution, helps to save the sanity and lessen that frustration!

Step 1: Gather Materials

Of course there are the commercial threaders, not very expensive, but if you are like me, we misplace them, can't find it when needed, etc.  I wanted to be able to continue with out running to a store, so came up with the solution shown here. All I needed was a small piece of "tin" cut from a pepsi can, and a short length of multi-strand copper wire.  I used wire cutters, wire stripper, small pliers, etc.

Step 2: Strip Wire to Provide Several Strands of Individual Wire

I needed a very small gauge wire for this project, and the smallest I had was 30gauge nichrome...it would go through some of the larger needles, but not the smallest.  So I came up with the idea of using the strands of wire found in regular electrical cord.  This is copper, of course, and is rather fragile in individual strands, but the threading process does not put much stress on the wire at all.

Step 3: Cut a Shape Out of the Pepsi Can As the Holder

Self explanatory, see pictures. The metal of the can is easily cut to shape with regular scissors.  This shaped piece has two parallel lines cut in it to hold the wire in place.

Step 4: Form Wire by Bending in Half, Then Pulling With the Needle Itself

The pictures show this process. You want the wire when bent in two to be able to go through the eye of the needle. And note that the little tin holder is not used here.  So I just keep some strands of wire in my sewing box, and if I need them, they are easy to find.

Step 5: Place Thread Through "Eye" Formed by Doubled Wire

After you have pushed the wire through the eye of the needle, you have a much larger target to hit with the thread.  This can be done in one try, and the thread doesn't have to be wet or cut again, or handled in any way. Much simpler than trying to "hit the eye of the needle!"