Have you ever pinned two fabrics together and realized that a hole was left when you removed the pin? 

Or maybe you were working on some knitted fabrics for the first time, and your trusty pins just kept falling out. 

Frustrated, you blame the fabric for being hard to work with. 

But I’ll let you in on a secret:

It’s actually the pin that’s the problem! 

Pins are generally so small, and the actual metal pin part all look so similar, that it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference, but different pins are made for different fabrics! 

When you see beautiful collections of different pins on instagram, they aren’t just for show, they actually each serve a purpose. 

Who knew a little metal pin could have so much to go over. Today we’re talkin’ pins and how the right ones can help you immensely while the wrong ones can cause frustration and unfinished sewing projects. 

What are sewing pins used for?

Although a very simple job, a pin is designed to temporarily keep two pieces of fabric together, usually during sewing projects.

It seems like such a simple task to do, just align your edges and sew, but with the way a sewing machine feeds fabric through it, it isn’t uncommon for the two fabrics to slowly slip away from each other as you feed it through.

In quilting especially, it is important to have an accurate seam allowance to make life simple for you later, and when your fabrics don’t stay lined up, your seam allowance is no longer accurate and things start to get wonky on you. 

Related: 
The Secret to Keeping the Perfect 1/4” Seam Allowance
5 Way to Check Your Seam Allowance Accuracy

Using pins takes all the work out of constantly stopping to check and see if your fabrics are aligned appropriately. 

Not to mention they come in such cute designs now-a-days, why WOULDN’T you want to use them! 

What to look for in sewing pins

Whether it feels like it or not, not all pins are made the same! 

They can have very subtle differences or they can have very obvious differences, but knowing how the differences can help or hurt your project is an important part of choosing which pins to use when. 

Length

When you are working with fabrics of different flexibility, having different length pins will become a huge asset in the sewing room. 

The length of your pin helps by changing the distribution of the distortion caused by the pin. 

In short, the longer the pin is, the less drastic bump in the fabric you’ll have from the pin. Different fabrics have varying levels of flexibility, a shear or silky fabric is much more flexible compared to a quilting cotton soaked in starch. 

To a certain extent, when a pin is put into fabric, it will make an arc between where the pin goes into the fabric and comes back out again, creating distortion in your fabric, and inaccuracy in your seam.

When you have stiffer fabrics, that arc can be quite drastic simply because it can’t bend as easily where the pin is holding it. The longer the pin is, the more you can stretch out that arc, lowering the fabric to a flatter level as much as possible. Doing this will minimize the distortion from the pin and allows you to have a more accurate seam allowance.

This is why you’ll see quilting pins much longer than typical seamstress pins. Quilting cotton is much less flexible (especially when you use starch) compared to most garment fabrics, so longer pins help keep better seam allowance accuracy with those stiffer fabrics.

Sharpness

Believe it or not, sharper is not always better! 

Both a sharp tipped set of pin as well as a more blunt, ball-point tip pin each have their own place in the sewing room. 

While most times you will default to the sharper set of pins, when you are working with more loose weave style fabrics like knits, or linens, a ball-point tip pin is actually more ideal to use. 

In these styles of fabric, a ball-point tip will push the strand of the weave aside, and slip past the fiber instead. A sharp-tipped needle has the potential to go right through the strand of the fabric weave splitting it in half and weakening it. 

When you are working with a woven fabric, the entire piece is made of one fiber, a lot like knitting. One hole in the middle, and the whole thing unravels. The stronger your fibers are the longer that fabric will last.

Depending on the type of fabric you are using, a lower degree of sharpness to your needles may actually be the better option. 

Diameter

Diameter can often go hand-in-hand with the sharpness for many of the same reasons. 

When you are working with loose weave fabrics, a tiny diameter of pin won’t likely hold well against the loose fibers. It will be more likely to wiggle around and fall out easier. 

Using a bigger diameter of pin will be able to fit more snugly in the loose weave and be able to hold much better. 

In the same breath though, something that was useful in a loose weave may actually cause damage in a tight weave or delicate fabric like a silk or a cotton.

That same large diameter pin can actually create a noticeable hole in a tight weave fabric. Fabric fibers only have so much elasticity to cover up the hole once the pin is removed, so using a thinner needle will be much easier for the tighter weave fabric to recover from compared to a larger diameter. 

Does a sewing pin head type matter?

Yes and no. 

This is one of those things that is a personal preference and different quilters or sewers will tell you different things. 

Those that say yes, will often say it because the flatter a sewing pin head is, the less distortion it causes as you feed it through the sewing machine. 

When you have a ball head on the sewing pin, it is common to find that the head essentially tilts the fabric as it feeds through the machine because of the bulk of the head of the pin compared to the tip of it. A flatter pin head won’t push the head end of the pin up so much so you can get a flatter, more accurate seam. 

Those that say no likely don’t sew over pins. When you don’t feed your pins through the machine, it doesn’t matter what style head you have on your pins. 

There are occasional reasons why you might want to sew over a pin, cases where you are trying to match up specific points in your blocks and don’t want them to shift under the presser foot. Having a few different pins on hand to try out in these cases are definitely helpful to figure out what your personal preference is. 

This is usually a matter of preference so try out different things and see what you like best!

What are the different types of pins?

To accommodate all those different fabric types, different sewing pins were created. Although sometimes hard to see the difference at a quick glance, when using the right ones you notice the difference immediately. 

Glass head Pins

Glass head simply refers to the type of head that is on the pin. Instead of being made with plastic they are actually made of glass which makes them resistant to heat if you ever accidentally (or intentionally) ironed over one. 

They are nice because glass has a natural reflection to it, so they are easier to spot if you forgot a few in your blocks, or happened to drop one on the floor. 

They can come in many different sizes so its nice to be able to have the advantage of a glass head, and the wide variety at the same time. 

Ball-point Pins

Ball-point tipped pins have a blunted end that is great for avoiding damage to knit fabrics like jersey. Since knitted fabrics are made of a single piece of thread/yarn, if you break the thread anywhere along the way, you risk it unraveling from the center out. 

Ball-point tips are great to avoid piercing right through the thread of the knit fabric, and instead the blunt end deflects the strand out of the way allowing the needle to enter in and out between the weave. 

Quilting Pins

When you have many layers to work through, quilting pins are ideal. 

They are a longer pin than usual and can smoothly work through many layers of fabrics, batting, or whatever it may be to keep things nice and secure. 

The added length gives you a little more room to work without pins popping out on you. 

Silk Pins

Most fabrics have some degree of elasticity where after a pin is removed, the hole closes back up on its own and you can’t tell the pin was ever there. 

Silk is an example of a fabric that has almost no elasticity. If you put a larger pin into it, the may push the fibers out of the way, but they will also stay that way, leaving a visible hole in your silk. 

Silk pins are much a finer, thiner, smaller pin, that minimizes the damage and visibility of pinning fabric types like silk. 

Can I iron over pins?

No. You should not iron over pins. 

Whenever you iron over a surface that is not smooth that causes level differences in the fabric, the iron will actually make wrinkle impressions of that change. 

If you iron over pins, the pressure from the iron will push the pin down creating a perfect pin impression in your fabric. 

In addition to creating more wrinkles for yourself, many head of pins are actually plastic, not metal or glass. These types of pins are not resistant to heat and may actually melt under the heat of the iron, staining your fabric at the same time. 

So to avoid creating wrinkles and ruining your fabric at the same time, it’s best to avoid ironing over pins whenever possible.

If you have to iron over a pin for some reason, opt for the glass head pins to avoid melting any part onto your fabric.

Can a sewing machine sew over pins

Technically yes, a sewing machine can sew over pins. 

However sewing over pins is a habit you want to avoid getting into when possible as it has the potential to damage your machine. 

While sewing machine stitch lengths are capable of spanning over pins, there are the occasional times where the placement is just perfect and your sewing machine strikes the pin dead center. 

While sewing over pins in general doesn’t necessarily damage your machine, that 1 out of 100 times you actually hit the sewing pin can break your machine to the point where it is unusable entirely. 

A couple of things can happen when the sewing machine actually hits a pin:

• The sewing pin will bend or break
• The sewing machine needle may bend or break 
• The immediate stop of the machine as the needle gets stopped by the pin can break gears on the inside.
• The sewing needle may fall to one of the sides of the pin so harshly that it actually throws off the alignment of the needle on your sewing machine (Ask me how I know)

When your needle’s alignment gets thrown off, your needle may be set to the middle setting, but it will actually be very far left or very far right as it sits compared to the presser foot. 

This can limit which presser feet you can actually use as the smaller the hole for the needle is, the more likely the presser foot will actually get hit instead of letting the needle pass through. This will leave that presser foot unusable until the alignment of the needle can get fixed. 

While a sewing machine can certainly skip over needles, all it takes is one to cause serious damage to your machine. 

So if you like to live on the edge and sew over your pins, just take care when you cross one to avoid breaking your machine by accident. 

The Best Sewing Pins for Quilters

Did I mention this is a two part post?

Part two is all about all the different pin types you can get so you can streamline the buying process and know exactly where to start shopping. 

I’m going all out on both practicality and style for Part 2 so be sure not to miss it.

To stay in the know as soon as it goes live, be sure to sign up for my email updates below, and as a thanks for signing up, you’ll immediately get our FREE Vichy quilt pattern as well! 

Who doesn’t love that. 

So I’ll see you then!