Sewing needle

A pointed tool with an eye that draws thread through material to create stitches.

Classification

Mechanisms: poking
Tasks: join, repair
Materials: carbon steel, stainless steel
Historical materials: bone, antler, ivory, bronze, iron

Principles

Concentrates force into a point;carries a flexible filament through material;forms a mechanical connection by interlocking thread;relies on friction to hold stitches in place.

Evolution

Upper Paleolithic (Magdalenian) – 300 BCE
Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975. Public Domain (Open Access).
Bone needle[1]
Among the earliest eyed needles known in Western Europe, shaped from splinters of animal bone, spanning Magdalenian Europe through Japan's Final Jōmon period.
Viking Age (c. 793–1066 CE)
Bronze and iron needle[2]
A metal stage between the bone tradition and industrial steel — Viking Age examples from Gotland, Sweden.
20th century – present
National Museum of African American History and Culture. Gift from Mae Reeves and her children, Donna Limerick and William Mincey, Jr. CC0.
Steel needle
The dominant material since industrialization.