Needles and pins 

During the 19th century, needle production was the speciality of England, with Redditch, near Birmingham being considered as the world capital of sewing needles. It was also an important industry in Aachen, Germany. Even though production in France was not so substantial, the most significant manufacturers were based in Normandy.

When talking about embroidery needles, it is normally understood that these have a blunt point. If they are sharp tipped, they are known as crewel needles. It is the same for tapestry needles. They are usually round tipped, much easier for sewing through canvas. However, sometimes it is practical to have a sharp tip, for example, on Penelope canvas with a double mesh, for emphasising stitches. Large tapestry needles are often called Smyrna needles after the town in Turkey (now Izmir), famous for its' woollen rugs using, among others, Smyrna stitch.

These selections of 40 needles are one of Maison Sajou's specialities. They contain 20 sharp sewing needles and 20 round tipped embroidery needles. Perfect for all your sewing needs. An ideal gift for any stitcher. The most difficult thing is to choose between the different motifs!

When you know how many operations it takes to make a quality sewing needle, you can appreciate that the price is totally justified. No less than eleven stages of production are necessary: dressing, which involves heating the steel wire to straigten it; cutting followed by another heat treatment; grinding to make the point; cleaning; stamping to give it a first form; piercing the eye; different processes of filing to obtain the final form; tempering and polishing. All that without counting the packaging.

There are two types of operations for repairing textiles: darning and invisible mending. Darning a sock or jumper consists of repairing a hole or wear with a matching thread. Our Laine Saint-Pierre darning wool is perfect for this. Invisible mending takes a bit more skill and involves reconstructing the warp and weft of the fabric by taking threads from other parts of the cloth. As for milliners needles, as the name suggests, they are used for hat-making. Their long length makes them perfect as well for basting, gathering and oversewing.

Straight or curved, mattress needles are hard to come by. You will find all the existing sizes on our site. They are used for easily going through large thicknesses. As for the spectacularly large packing needles, they were once used for large bundles of cotton or fabric. Nowadays they are often used for weaving. Triangular sail needles, as the name implies, are used for repairing sails. They are also useful for repairing canopies, tents, deckchairs and all other thick, waterproof fabrics.

Large range of long, fine and flexible bead needles for making your own jewellery. They are also used for glass bead embroidery. Doll needles are very long and fine. They are also perfect for making teddy bears.

Needles for all types of leather work. Triangular carrelets, curved and straight needles, our needles are available in assortments or lots.
Curved needles are used in leather work. They enable an invisible stitch when used for example on a cushion or cover that has just been stuffed. They are also very useful for all types of upholstery work with large thicknesses to sew.
The triangular carrelets are perfect for leather and suede or even vinyl without risk of tearing. Can also be used for book binding.
Saddler’s needles have a round tip and do not pierce the leather. The holes are prepared beforehand with an awl.
Round-tipped saddler’s needles are used for the famous saddle stitch using two needles and two threads.

As with needles, until 1880, pin production was predominant in Germany, and mainly in Redditch, England. Both pins and needles were produced in the same factories. In "The wealth of nations" by Adam Smith, published in 1776, the English author describes the eighteen different operations necessary to make a pin, using the imagery of this humble object as an example of specialisation and productivity. Sajou offers a large range of quality steel dressmaker's pins made in France. You will find everything for your sewing needs, be it for light fabrics, heavy sheets or delicate silks. Our needles are both fine and strong.

Glass-headed pins are the result of an ingenious process: the pins are placed on a rotating wheel. Above this wheel is a rod of coloured glass, which is melted by means of a sort of blowtorch. On the rotating wheel, each pin picks up a drop of molten glass. This traditional method is the reason the pin heads are not all exactly the same size. The glass rose come from Murano, this world-reknowned city famous for the production of coloured glass.

It is generally accepted that the safety pin is the descendant of the fibula, a bronze brooch used by the Romans to hold together the many layers of their togas. The modern day safety pin was invented in New York by Walter Hunt in 1849. The idea came to him whilst twiddling with a piece of brass wire. Ater the invention of metal lathes in 1864, safety pin production was rapidly mechanised. It was Benjamin Bohin who developped the first machine in France, leading to a totally automatic production. Safety pins are so called because of the cap which covers the point. At a time when nappies, or diapers were made from cloth, they were widely used so are also known as nappy or diaper pins.