Breakthrough in sewing needles | Hacker News Reader

Breakthrough in sewing needles

bitsandpieces.us

58 pointsThomPete34 comments

There is a reason that this wasn't invented 50 years ago -- most people who regularly thread needles have been doing it for so many years, that this is a non-issue.

That being said, I asked my wife (who makes her living with needles and fibers) what she thought, and she said that she has seen similar designs before, and thinks they look great, but just never tried them.

This is actually a great product design insight -- what looks like an amazing product isn't solving the problems that the serious "users" actually encounter. It is solving the problem that the casual or new users encounter.

Which shouldn't diminish the fact that it is a great idea. It just probably will have a long ramp-up before it "takes over the world."

I think that is a good way to look at it.

Give her one show at Oprah though and she will definitely "take over the world"

I just showed it to my grandmother and she said she has some of them and they do work. If two out of two experts in the field have devices like this, the USPTO is apparently as bad at evaluating sewing inventions as it is at evaluating software inventions. <sarcasm>So obviously we should do away with sewing patents all together.</scarcasm>

Hi guys, I am the inventor of the Spiral Eye side threading needle. Your conversation is very interesting to me. It is from a very different view point than what I usually hear. My needle is new, but I have been selling them for over two years, on line, in some stores and at state fairs and events. There is a huge market for them. A needle is the most ubiquious of tool in the world. It is used in surgery, to mending, crafts, to fishing. The design I came up with has a very precarious geometry to keep the thread inside and not snag the material you are sewing. The technology to make it did not exist fifty years ago. I also have just been written up in a newspaper in Denmark and my website sales have gone through the roof. Maybe the Danes sew more than the Americans.

The last line in the article sums it best: "Why wasn’t this inventer 50 years ago?"

Exactly my thought, this is a bit like inventing a better cd/dvd case now.

I was wondering, what do you personally do when shirt buttons come off?

I have a little shop at my mall which charges $1 for button repair. The button is $1 extra.

They also repair pants cuffs, which is nice because my bicycle seems to have a taste for them.

Of course, that means you have to bring your clothes to the little shop, leave them there, then come back and pick them up again. These transaction costs dwarf the monetary cost. But sewing on a button takes no more than a minute - and shirts almost always have a matching spare button attached, either to the inside label or inside the hem.

I've sewn on buttons many times. Never successfully. They always come away after a short time.

There's a technique to it, to be sure; but I have rather found the reverse. Many designer shirts I've bought have had poorly attached buttons, whereas those buttons I reattached myself stayed secure.

  Lord Finchley tried to mend the Electric Light
  Himself. It struck him dead; and serves him right!
  It is the duty of the wealthy man
  To give employment to the artisan.

Come now, there's no comparison between sewing on a button and trying to repair a potentially lethal electric apparatus!

As to duty, what is the fully loaded cost of going to a third party for a trifle? I'm thinking of transport in particular.

You remind me of those folks who take their bikes to repair shops when they get a flat tire... :)

Somehow, I suspect people going to "a little shop in the mall" would do other shopping on the same trip.

These work great for keeping your pants cuff out of the chainrings:

http://www.amazon.com/Pant-Cuff-Clips-Bike-Bicycle/dp/B000MM...

My family has always just used two strips of velcro. Mate ~1/2 of a few inches each, and the remaining tails stick to each other. Wrap & go.

Advantage: you can wrap it around the handlebars / a part of the bike when not in use, so you never have to remember to carry it.

Good point. I'll answer with a question - what do you personally do, when your shoe need repair?

Buttons and shirts: I sew.

Shoes need heavy-duty (compared to a needle) equipment to fix, so they go in the garbage or get taken to a shoemaker.

If it's a good shoe, I take it to a cobbler. But shoe repair requires more tools and expertise than reattaching a button.

Two-part epoxy.

I've gotten away using a tube of silicone sealant and a hammer (don't ask)

I've tried epoxy and even superglue too :)

Same as for button repairs and trouser cuffs repairs and so on, I bring it to the shop down the street where they fix it perfectly for less than 3$... (Living in China is great for that)

I put the shirt in my suitcase, then after several months a holiday comes. I'll fly home, and find the shirt in my case so i'll give it to my mom. She'll smile say something along the lines of "some things never change" and fix it for me. I'll eat a chocolate chip cookie while I wait.

I resewed the edging on the laptop sleeve for my 13" Macbook not too long ago. 5 minutes, and I save myself $15. Lots of sewing kits for casual users come with a diamond shaped wire loop that makes it easier to thread needles. Those are dirt cheap. This invention is even more convenient. Kudos!

I imagine this might have an unplanned benefit to sewers -- you can use a smaller needle for the thickness of thread you're sewing with. Even using a threader requires you to pull the string through doubled. However, it looks like the eye of the needle is thicker than other needles of the same size. I can't be sure, because I can't tell how big the needle in the picture is.

This goes to show that innovation exists for even the most mundane things.

I didn't even see the problem until this article came up (much less the possible solution). I'd always assumed that there would be children on-hand to thread needles for their parents, the way I was when I was younger.

In retrospect - really dumb of me.

Yes, it looks fantastic.

Still, needles are not that hard to thread. It's not like there's a great nationwide backlog of sewing that can finally recommence because people can finally thread their needles again.

Needles are hard to thread, if you've got no binocular vision (like me). In fact, they're friggin' impossible.

(I have a hell's brew of retinopathy (it's dormant, but I've only got half the visual field in my right eye), a fovea in the left eye that's held in place by a clip (say goodbye to fine detail!), myopia, astigmatism, and now a forty-something's presbyopia. My vision for close-up detail work is terrible, I have to rely on paralax for judging distances when driving (guess who doesn't drive at night?) and threading a needle has been impossible for me since I was 25. Even the diamond-wire needle threaders barely help. This is the first thing I've seen that might actually work!)

Actually binocular vision doesn't help - I almost always close one eye when threading needles. I need to wear reading glasses now though, getting too old to see small stuff clearly enough. (I cheat - I got some extra strong reading glasses for close work like threading needles and removing splinters (3 diopter, normally use 1.0 to 1.5 for reading) - they are a big help.)

It's quite extraordinary that this hasn't been done before.

I guess most people have thought about it but probably thought, there probably is a reason for this.

Just goes to show, never assume things can't change.

They though of this: http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2007/06/self_threading_nee...

Moreover, the first comment on that page points out that the self-threading needle is ill-suited for typical sewing because the eye is so big. And the side-threading needle in the article seems to have an even larger eye.

I think the article says it has been done before but that the previous version had too wide a gap, and possibly a different morphology, and so the thread would slip out.

This appears to be a rediscovery of an old invention in that case, so presumably a patent won't be granted.

It reminds me of surgical needles, which actually is still continuously innovated until today!

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