How to Quilt>Dritz Needle Threader and Cutter

 

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Threading Those Tiny Needles

Frankly, I was skeptical.

When I looked at this homely, little tool hanging in my local quilt shop, I thought "Now, that's something only it's mother could love."

Dritz Needle Threader and Cutter.

Standing a short 2" high and proudly sporting a long neck, the notion of that being a tool to thread a needle intrigued me nonetheless. And, since I was in the market for something to make my needle-threading life easier, I decided to add it to my purchases for the day.

Even as I removed it from it's package, I couldn't figure out how it could possibly work. Finally, I decided to look at the instructions on the back, which were very helpful.

It's actually as easy to use as its 4 steps implies, and its pretty effective - a great combination for easing the challenge of threading those tiny quilting Betweens.

The first step is to insert your needle, eye side down, into the funnel - as shown in the picture above. At first I was afraid that the tiny Between needle would get lost in the funnel.

However, you can see in the photograph, that it still stands tall in the funnel. At least tall enough to pull out when the needle is threaded.

Needle Threader with needle and thread in position.

 

The second step is to lay your thread across the goove behind the funnel. This is pretty simple.

The trick is to make sure that the thread is in a position to be pushed into the funnel by a little metal wire that comes across the groove when you push the white lever.

 

 

Push the white lever on the needle threader to make the wire come across the groove and push the thread through the funnel .

 

The third step is to press the lever down gently and release it.

I got really lucky (it turns out) that the first time I pushed the lever, the thread popped right through and threaded the needle.

As I played more with it, there were times when the wire missed the thread, and it took a couple of times re-arranging the thread and pushing the lever in order to get the needle threaded. (A small inconvenience.)

 

 

A small loop of thread will appear. Pull the loop until the end of the thread comes out.

A small loop of thread will appear on the far side of the funnel.

Once it does, gently pull it through until the cut end of the thread pulls through to the other side.

You may want to pull just the cut end of the thread to ease it through. That way you don't end up with massive amounts of thread to possibly get tangled.

 

 

A small loop of thread will appear. Pull the loop until the end of the thread comes out.

 

Now the cut end of your thread is pulled all the way through the needle and there is no little loop left.

 

 

 

 

A small loop of thread will appear. Pull the loop until the end of the thread comes out.

 

Once the needle is threaded, swing the thread around to the tiny razor and cut it.

 

Overall, when this works, it is a prettly slick little device. The problem I had was in the reliability of getting the needle threaded.

The first time through went very smoothly. After that, it took multiple times of trying in order to get the thread through the eye of the needle.

In short - when it works, it's great! The official name of this device is:

Dritz Needle Threader with Cutter - for hand needles.

 

Happy Quilting!

Penny Halgren
www.How-to-Quilt.com
www.TheQuiltingCoach.com
www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com

Penny is a quilter of more than 27 years who seeks to interest new quilters and provide them with the resources necessary to create beautiful quilts.

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©2006, Penny Halgren