What is the best needle for Smocking?
When choosing your floss you are going to be smocking with make certain the needle you choose to work with allows enough room in the eye to accomodate the width of your floss. Now that may sound strange but seriously, you can’t put perle cotton in the eye of a crewel #10. You will have to move up to either a Crewel #6 or a Darner #5, even a Darner #3. There are many choices in needles but the type that I (and all the teachers) recommend is Darners #7 $1.50 per package of 15. This is a good sized needle long with a wide eye that you can actually see for threading. It also makes a big hole in your pleat for several strands of floss to fit through. This is especially helpful when you are doing picture smocking and using 4 strands of floss. As a rule of thumb the size of the needle you are using and the type of floss depends on the type of fabric you are smocking on. If using a fine batiste I would go with a crewel #10 as the needle is a thin one less likely to damage the fabric. If smocki
