How to Thread a Needle & Knot the Thread

Video Transcript

"Hi! I'm Karen for Expert Village. Before we start sewing, I want to take a minute to show you how to thread and knot your needle and do an ending knot. This thread is a thicker thread. It's a number 8, so you'll need a needle with a bigger hole to get the thread into. Now, the first thing you do is wet...you can lip your fingers just to wet your fingers, damp your fingers and kind of wet the end of the thread. If it has any fuzzys on it you want to cut them off with some very sharp scissors so there's no threads hanging off of there. Little fuzzy ends. Sometimes if you just pinch the thread very flat and push it through the needle like that. Push it through and pull it. Then pull yourself out a reasonable amount that you can work with. If you make it too long then it'll take to long to pull the thread through and you might get confused, especially for children. You don't want to make the threads too long for them. If you make it too short, then you run out of thread too soon and your ending knotting and starting knotting too many times. Let me show you with a needle threader. Pull out a little. This one you don't have to wet the end with because you're going to need this needle threader. This is good for even smaller holes. You put the needle threader wire through the small hole and then you end up with a much bigger hole to put your thread through, and it slides so it's much easier. So if you have difficulty seeing or for children, these needle threaders are great. They can usually get the wire through the needle hole pretty easily. Then you just pull it through. It's a great thing to have. You buy them by the dozen because they break very easily. Again, get yourself a reasonable length of thread and cut that off. Now I'm going to show you how to knot the threads to a beginning knot. You want a pretty good thick knot because you don't want it to be coming out. This is the way I do it. Wet your finger. You can just lick your finger just to be damp, not soaking wet. Twist the thread around your finger crossing over itself. Then with your thumb, you're going to pinch and roll. Pinch and roll quite a bit. Then with this finger, you're going to pinch down and drag the knot to the end pulling it tightly. It makes quite a large knot that will not slip through. Now, you might think it looks messy, but that's a nice fat large knot that's not going to slip through your fabric. You're going to hide that knot as you go, and I'll show you how to hide that knot."