Best (Sewing) Practices #2: Do NOT Sew Over Pins

I’ll repeat slowly: Do. Not. Sew. Over. Pins.

Has my iPencil drawing improved, or nah?

I feel shocked, shocked when accomplished seamstresses sew over pins. Pins are useful and totally necessary to hold your seams together before machine stitching. Some may disagree, but that’s okay. The point of this short post is to encourage you to remove pins in the seam as they approach the machine needle. What may happen if the needle hits the pin? Take your pick from these possibilities:

1. Metal hits metal and the needle or pin breaks, or both break.

2. The broken metal may hit you in the face (the eye in a worst case scenario). But then, it may not hit you but makes you jump out of your skin. This happened to me once when the pin was not visible to me, and I was shook up for days.

3. A piece of the broken pin may get lost in the nether regions (under the needle plate) of your machine. Horrors!

You’ve now lost a pin and a perfectly good needle to that pincushion in the sky, not to speak of possible knicks to the needle plate or other parts of the needle/bobbin assembly.

Pray that this ugly phenomenon doesn’t hurt a human – you. Shudder….

Be careful out there… as the police chief said to the patrolmen.

Samina

10 thoughts on “Best (Sewing) Practices #2: Do NOT Sew Over Pins”

  1. Voice of Wisdom!  What makes me cringe are sewing friends who place their pins vertically in the seam (pointed part of pin approaches the machine needle like a shark in shallow water)….better to place pins horizontally in the seam with pin head on the right side so you can grab it easily to remove it from the impending needle.  Just so you know, I am in complete awe of your Ipencil drawing! 

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    1. Charlene, thanks for the overlooked best practice of pinning horizontally! Your analogy —- “shark in shallow water” — made me laugh!

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  2. You’ll hate me, but I do sew over pins. Not at full speed, but very slowly when I need to keep the layers perfectly aligned. I also sew with glasses on, so I won’t get a pin in the eyeball. 🙂 But I do agree you shouldn’t sew over pins at full speed.

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  3. I’ve sewn over pins my entire life, but recently started seeing how silly it is to take the chance. It’s easy to take each one out when I get to it. And yes, no more needle breaks or bent pins. It also avoids those occasional hiccup when the pin head gets caught under the presser foot and puts a crooked spot in your seam.

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  4. I agree with you and everyone here – don’t sew over pins! But of course I do; the safest way to so, and only when you absolutely must – which is almost never – is to hand walk your flywheel over the one or two pins that have to stay in place. This way, if the needle hits the pin there shouldn’t be enough force from your hand to do more than bend the pin, and if you do feel it you can always back it out.
    Like you, I’ve bent and broken needles and pins; as in your very accurate drawing, sometimes the thread catches the needle and keeps it from flying, but I’ve also nicked my needle plate (which had to be replaced), lost broken parts of pins and needles in my machine and needed to get professional help removing them (they really can cause damage to your machine’s moving parts), and had pieces of needle fly up and hit me in the face – I too was shaken for some time after that incident!
    As for sewing with the pins left in vertically, there’s a very famous and very good “Professor” instructor who does this; I know his long-practiced hand is used to removing the pins as he sews, but it always makes me nervous to watch him do it!

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  5. Great safety reminders! You illustrate the risks clearly without being alarmist. It’s wise to take simple precautions like pin removal to avoid hazards and protect our machines. Thanks for the useful tip – it will help newcomers and experienced sewers alike to stitch with confidence.

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