You may remember a conversation we had last fall – about needle threaders. Until the past couple of years – I had never given needle threaders any thought at all. They were just a little piece of foil paper with a tiny, twisted wire sticking out of them. I had several (no idea where they came from) – but I never used them.

Other than binding my quilts, a little mending, or the random embroidery project, I haven’t done any significant hand stitching in years. That all changed when I got the crazy idea to create a modern version of a Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt using 1-inch hexagons.

Clearly, I was looking for a challenge – and I found one. The tiny (size 8 – 10) needles I’m now using for this project, are not so easy to thread. I went looking for a needle threader, not realizing that there were SO MANY OPTIONS. I’ve tried several, some worked for me, others not so much. I decided I needed to do more research and settle on the one (or ones) that worked best for me – and hopefully for you too.

The Test

I purchased a wide variety of needle threaders based on your recommendations and versions I found in several quilt shops I visited.

The needle threaders were divided into groups by type (wire, prong/hook, or automatic). I created a test sheet with a ranking system (1 = Excellent – 5 = Poor). Each tester was provided with a test sheet to note their rankings and they tested each needle threader. There was also space provided to add other comments such as:

• Which option did you like the best (and why)?
• Which option did you like the least (and why)?
• Any other comments

Based on this ranking system – the lower the number – the more highly rated the needle threader. The higher the number – the more strikes against it. The best score any needle thread could rank on any metric (Construction, Ease of Use, Value) was 4. The worst score would be 20.

The testers were members of my quilt group (since 1995) and had varying degrees of experience with hand stitching. Two are very experienced, one is fairly experienced, and one has minimal experience with hand stitching.

Each tester worked with one category of needle threaders at a time (wire, prong/hook, or automatic).

Results: Needle Threaders with a Wire Loop

Tester Comments:

Tester 1:

• Best: Yellow Handle. Very easy to hold with arthritic Hands, easy to thread the needle, Love the light.
• Worst: Beadnova – Wire was too thick to go through the eye of the small-eyed needles
• Additional comment: struggled with getting the Dritz and Prym version to go through the eyes of the (very small) needle. Probably would work better for a larger needle than I was using.

Tester 2:

• Best: Yellow handle. It was easier to grip and easy to use.
• Worst: Foil. It’s too delicate and fiddly.

Tester 3:

• Best: Foil and the Dritz. The foil version is cheap, and the Dritz version is light and feels good in the hand.
• Worst: Beadnova and Prym. The wire loop is too large on the Beadnova version and the Prym version is very rigid.
• Additional Comments: I’d personally buy the foil version to scatter around the house – all the places I stitch and buy the Dritz for my “main” sewing station.

Tester 4:

• Best: Dritz. It’s similar to a tool I already use and it’s easy to use.
• Worst: Foil. It’s flimsy and easily bent.
• Additional comment: Beadnova is a good option for the price.

Results: Prong/Hook Needle Threaders

Tester Comments:

Tester 1:

• Best: Prym, it’s cuter, has a cover to protect the hook and it works well.
• Worst: Amazon – these work well too but don’t have a cover to protect the hook.
• Additional Comments: I like them both, If I needed several – I would choose the Amazon version because of how it fits in my hand.

Tester 2:

• Best: Both worked the same.
• Worst: I liked them both.

Tester 3:

• Best: Amazon. Same ease of use, and better value.
• Worst: Prym. A more expensive tool to do the same job.

Tester 4:

• Best: Prym. I liked having the cover that flips down to protect the prong.
• Worst: Amazon. It was a good option, but I liked the slot on the Prym better than the hook.
• Additional Comments: A little hard to use if you have manual dexterity issues.

Results: Automatic Needle Threaders

Tester Comments:

Tester 1:

• Best: Clover. It sits on the table (don’t need to hold it). It worked every time with multiple sizes of needles.
• Worst: Sewline. Couldn’t get it to work – no matter what size needle I tried.
• Additional Comments: The Yellow Amazon version worked better with needles with larger eyes.

Tester 2:

• Best: Clover. It sits flat on a surface allowing for stability. Good instructions. Got it on the first try.
• Worst: Sewline. Couldn’t make it work.

Tester 3:

• Best: None of the above. Too complicated.
• Worst: Amazon. No instruction came with it.
• Additional Comments: Too expensive for my needs. I want a needle threader everywhere I sit and sew.

Tester 4:

• Best: None. Could not get any of them to work for me.
• Worst: See above.

My goal for this exercise was to narrow the options down to a few that work well for the majority of us. Having others do the testing was incredibly helpful. Here’s what I’ve learned from doing this test.

Wire Needle Threaders:

• Foil: They are very inexpensive; except they are also very delicate. A good hack- suggested by several of you (and one of the testers) is to use a hot glue gun and add a drop of glue to the point where the wire goes into the foil. This will help them last a lot longer.
• Beadnova: These got mixed results due to the size of the wire. Good got needles with larger eyes but not as good for needles with smaller eyes.
• Dritz: This one came in second in the testing. It works and is comfortable to hold in your hand, the wire retracts (protecting it during storage). It also has a built-in light.
• Prym: Very similar to the Dritz version but testers found the wire a little more rigid and the price is a little higher.
• Zickupy Yellow Handle: This one was the surprise winner. It’s comfortable to hold – even with arthritic hands, and has a light, and a fine wire with a cover to protect it.

Which ones will I be adding to the Quiltblox store?

I’m adding these 3 to the Quiltblox store:

• Foil – because so many of you told me you liked them (and some of you gave me a great hack to keep the wire loop from pulling out of the foil paper).
• Dritz – because it did so well in the testing.
• Zickupy Yellow Handle LED – because it was the tester’s favorite – and I want a link handy for when I need another one.

Prong/Hook Needle Threaders:

Both versions we tested did well and were popular options with the testers. I’ll be adding both the Amazon/Hula Home and Hummingbird Needle Threader needle threaders to the store.

Automatic Needle Threaders:

This category was very interesting. The testing results were heavily positive toward one option by the more experienced hand stitchers in the tester group and heavily negative by the least experienced hand stitchers. Surprisingly, two of the options (Amazon and Sewline) did very poorly in the testing. The Amazon version did not come with instructions and almost no one could figure it out, and no one was able to successfully use the Sewline version.

The Clover automatic needle threader did very well in testing with the experienced hand stitchers. I have also had excellent success with this version. For that reason, the Clover version will be added to the Quiltblox Store.

Please note: I did not include all the other kinds of needle threaders (for embroidery, ribbon, yarn, etc.) for this test. I may do that in the future, but for now – I just need to get some needles threaded so I can get stitching on my hexie flowers. I hope you found this information helpful!

Final Thoughts

In addition to Ease of Use, Construction, and Value, a few other factors also need to be considered when choosing our favorite needle threaders. The type and amount of hand stitching that we do, the size and type of needles we use, and personal preference all play a role in our choices.

For that reason, I have included at least two options each for the Wire and Prong/Hook versions. These are the choices most of the testers preferred. As for the Automatic Needle threader – the Clover option was far and away the preference for those of use who do like using an automatic needle threader. That’s the one you’ll find in the Quiltblox shop. I have 2 of them – in purple. It also comes in a couple of other colors.

Happy stitching,

Deb