Minnesotan mom Pam Turner took it upon herself to design and produce the world’s first dead-simple sewing needle.
“I remember laughing as my mom struggled to thread a needle,” Pam was quoted in the USPTO newsletter as saying. “Glasses resting on her nose, she trimmed the end of the thread, sucked on it, failed to get it through the eye of the needle and re-trimmed it. Sometimes she would curse, ‘Why can’t someone invent a better needle? We’ve been to the moon for goodness sake.’” Pam couldn’t think of an adequate response, so instead she invented a better needle.
According to the Spiral Eye side-threading needle ordering site, Pam’s product is so easy to use, “you can thread one with your eyes closed.” While we wouldn’t necessarily suggest trying that at home, we would blindly recommend purchasing a set of Spiral Eyes — you know, if you’re into the whole “foolproof” thing.
Why wasn’t this inventer 50 years ago?
This looks like it would actually work.
They came out with “self-threaders” in the late 70’s but you pushed the thread down from the top and if you pulled too hard on it when you sewed, it came right out, unraveling the thread as you went. Another drawback to the old style was a huge hole, you couldn’t use them for fine sewing.
I can’t wait to try this version, looks good!
This is simply incredible. Wonderful!
Neat! Where can I get some?
As my eyes start to fail in the prime (heh heh heh) of my life, this is a friggin’ miracle. Drives me to drink when I struggle to find that little hole. (insert rude comments now)
…looks like it would work…years ago I learned to use an Embroidery needle instead of a sharp as the hole is much bigger..
Bella – Short drive, eh?
(very short Richard.) LOL
(now that I can have a beer or two, they taste good toooo)
Bella I can tell you if you drink too much,the hole is hard to find
Perseverance and braille Infi. 🙂
Until this thing hits a store near you, there is a tool that might help… http://sewing.about.com/od/notions/ss/needlethreader.htm
how does it hold up if you pull the needle backwards?
I suspect that part of the reason something like this was so laong in coming has to do with the quality of steel available at an affordable price. It’s much easier to get high-quality, high-tensile-strength steel (at an affordable price) today than it was 50 years ago; plus, there have been a lot of advances in manufacturing technology. Not at all to downplay the cleverness of the idea, though — it’s very neat! But if it had been invented in the 50s it might never have made it to market.