A word about Pins

I am passionate about good value when it comes to my tools, and that includes my pins too.

There are lots of brands of pins and lots of different kinds of pins. most of you will be familiar old fashioned steel headed pins such as these.

Stainless steal dressmaking pins

Some of you, like me, might find these painful to use - and jolly difficult to find when you drop them - as you inevitably will!  To over come both of these points you may use bobble headed pins like these.

Plastic head pins

And for those who like this sort of thing there are lots of pretty pins with shaped heads such as hearts or flowers.

Plastic head pins with heart shaped heads

These are all lovely and pretty, and solve the problem of not being able to see them when dropped, and they don't hurt your fingers like steel headed pins can when pushing them through fabric.

I used to use plastic headed pins myself until I discovered Glass headed pins.  These were game changers I have to tell you!  No longer did I melt the bobble heads with the iron (marking the plate on the iron), no longer did they bend at the drop of a hat, and no longer did the bobble heads come off mid use - forcing me to grab a pair of pliers to retrieve the darn things.

Glass headed pins are made with high quality nickel plated steel which is really strong, it holds it's point for a really long time and they never bend unless you hit them with some force.  Like other dress making pins they come in two lengths as seen below.

51mm and 35mm Glass head pins

Now, these pins are not cheep!  On average they are 3-5 times the price of plastic head pins, but - and this is a big but, they last 10-20 times longer!  The glass head stays on so much better than plastic, I think only one has come off in the 5 years I have been using them, this is very favourable compared to the several per week that came off the plastic ones.  I have never snapped a glass head pin and have only bent them on very rare occasions when I have hit one while sewing on the machine - which also damages the machine needle too if you hit a pin.

My favourite brand of glass head pins are Hemline

My favourite brand of glass head pins

As you can see they are pricey, but you will really appreciate how good they are.  This is an investment in great tools for your sewing, if you make patchwork they are especially good because you can iron over them.

So if you sew as a hobby, or more seriously, think about the pins you use and consider getting some glass head pins - they make great stocking fillers at Christmas for friend and family who sew too, you can get them at most sewing and craft outlets or online.

Happy sewing