Eye-Opening Invention
Pamela Turner invented a sewing needle with a modified eye that makes it easier to thread.
Her creation has won awards, but in business having a good idea doesn’t ensure success.Turner, who lives in Blaine, has been on a quest to make and market a better needle for five years — since the day a button popped off her shirt as she was rushing to get ready for work at a Select Comfort store.
The 52-year-old struggled to thread the needle to make the repair. That set her mind racing. She recalled as a kid growing up in Lansing, Mich., threading her mother’s needles as her mom had trouble too. There has to be a market for an easy-to-thread sewing needle, she thought.
Her idea was to make a needle with an opening on the side that the user could slip thread into. The Spiral Eye sewing needle was born.
Last week a Chicago-based surgical needle maker agreed to test-market the Spiral Eye with surgeons and veterinarians. The company’s test run is for 600 needles. And after attending a trade show in California in January, Hobby Lobby, a national arts and crafts store chain, placed an order for her needles.
Photo by SpiralEyeNeedles.com.
Angela Shupe on April 14th, 2009 11:02 am
That’s a needle I would be willing to try out. I hate threading needles. I used to hand sew stuff all the time (I hate sewing machines), and had plenty of trouble getting the thread to go through that little hole. The only thing I wonder is… if it’s so simple to get the thread in through the slit on the side, wouldn’t it come out just as easily?
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