Parts of a Needle – Eye, Shaft, Point, Shank and Scarf

All 8 parts on the diagram

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Hand needle 3

Eye On a hand needle it is at the blunt end. On a machine needle it sits just above the point.
Shaft On a machine needle the matching part is usually called the blade.
Point It parts the threads of the fabric or cuts a hole. That depends on its shape.

Machine needle 5

Shank One side is flat and the other rounded. So it fits the clamp one way.
Shoulder It sits between the shank and the blade.
Blade Also called the shaft.
Long groove It guides the thread to the eye. It lets the thread lie close to the needle as it goes through the fabric.
Scarf It gives the hook room to pass close to the needle.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30, a name kept only where two independent sources use it. Hand needle: Wikipedia, text only, Sewing needle, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewing_needle (eye, shaft, point), and L. Wills, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Sewing (2000), read through the full-text search of https://archive.org/details/completeidiotsgu0000will_g6i2 (a long shaft with an eye at one end and the point at the other). Machine needle: Wikipedia, text only, Sewing machine needle, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewing_machine_needle (shank, shoulder, shaft, groove, scarf, eye, point; the flat face of the shank); a needle maker's dictionary, https://www.schmetzneedles.com/pages/sewing-machine-needle-dictionary (shank, blade, long groove, scarf, eye, point); K. E. Kunkel, The Complete Sewing Machine Handbook (1997), https://archive.org/details/completesewingma0000kunk (shank, shaft, long groove, eye, scarf, point, short groove; one side of the shank flat); and H. Carr and B. Latham, The Technology of Clothing Manufacture (1994), https://archive.org/details/technologyofclot0000carr (shank, shoulder, blade, long groove, short groove, eye, scarf, point), the two books read through archive.org's full-text search. Hints and detail lines are in our own words. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; no maker's needle, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

A hand sewing needle has three parts to name. A sewing machine needle has more, because a machine sews with the eye at the pointed end. For a medical needle, see the parts of a syringe.

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The hand needle

The eye is the hole at the blunt end that holds the thread. The shaft is the long body, and the point goes into the fabric first.

The machine needle, front and side

The thick shank is clamped in the machine. The shoulder narrows to the blade, and the long groove runs down the front of the blade to the eye, which sits just above the point. The lower drawing shows the needle turned a quarter turn: the scarf is the scoop in the back of the blade above the eye, and the shank shows its flat side.

Groove in front, scarf behind: they are on opposite sides of the blade.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a sewing needle?

A hand sewing needle has an eye, a shaft and a point. A sewing machine needle has a shank, a shoulder, a blade with a long groove in front and a scarf behind, an eye and a point.

What is the hole in a needle called?

The eye. The thread passes through it. A hand needle has its eye at the blunt end, and a sewing machine needle has it just above the point.

What is the scarf on a sewing machine needle?

A scoop cut out of the back of the blade just above the eye. It gives the machine's hook room to pass close to the needle.

Why is one side of a machine needle flat?

The shank of a home machine needle has one flat side and one rounded side. The flat side helps make sure the needle is put in the right way round.