Breaking needles is not an uncommon occurance when you do a lot of sewing, especially when you have to sew through many layers of fabric, or in this case, trim for draperies. Normally for something like this, I would be using one of my industrial machines and would breeze right through it. This trim though, besides being bulky, is also really bumpy. I needed to stitch it slowly, which is sometimes difficult with the industrial, so I opted to used my trusty old domestic, which also has the advantage of a wider foot. You can see how thick this trim is; to start my line of stitching, I had to use the little doohickey that came with yet another machine for sewing over jean seams.
So it was not unusual that I broke a needle, the problem was that I couldn't find the tip that had broken off. I thought it had shot off to the back of the machine; not there, not stuck in the trim, not down in the bobbin case. So I gave up looking, thinking it was probably on the floor. Then as I went to take the broken needle out, I saw this.
Definitely a first.
