groves | Mr X Stitch

Welcome to another Tooled Up column where we aim to give you reviews of fun products from all over the crafty world. Today we review some of the latest sewing needles on offer from PONY. One of the things I love about PONY needles is their amazing use of colour. A while ago I reviewed their Certain Stitch needles which have lovely coloured sections to help make your stitches all the same size. Oooh look at their pretty little coloured marks! And recently I needed a certain sized needle for a project I’m sewing on very small count fabric. I went online to find needles to suit the project and found this colourful array of PONY needles. I bought mine on Amazon and have noticed (because friends have wanted to buy some) that they sell out quite quickly so it's not only me who loves them! So imagine my surprise when I heard their latest offering would be monochrome! (Insert huge gasp of surprise here readers!) Introducing the PONY Black. How pretty are these. The needles are not nickel plated providing a great option for any of you out there with nickel allergies. The black and white also makes them less reflective than normal sewing needles which I found to be a great benefit when testing them out. I also felt the needles glided through the fabric easier, and that the needle having a black tip made it much easier to see where the needle was when I was inserting it through the aida fabric from the back to the front. I also felt they were easier to thread having a white eye hole. They are available in sharps as well as the more rounded tip cross stitch needles. You can't miss the black tip I have also been trying out PONY’s gold plated sewing needles. These needles are plated with 22 carat gold and have rounded points. Like the black needles, I found the golden eye (ooh unexpected James Bond reference…) made them easier to thread. I waste a lot of my time trying to thread needles… I’m working on an embroidery for a friend at the moment so I gave them a try on that. I had already sewn quite a lot of it with an old silver needle I’ve probably had for years. As well as being much easier to thread, I found the gold plated needles glided through the fabric more easily and was much easier to handle, it weirdly felt softer in my hand if that makes sense. We all have times where we have to give the needle a good pull to force it through where it doesn’t want to go. I found the gold plating made that much easier. The gold needle in action It's one of those things isn't it - you think the needle you're using, which you've probably used for years is fine, until you try something different. I was really impressed with how smooth these needles felt - particularly the Black range. They will definitely be my 'go to' needles from now on. All of these needles are distributed by the lovely people at Groves. For more information search for @grovesltd or @pony_needles_europe on Instagram. Prices vary so please contact groves@stockistenquiries.co.uk for stockists and for more information click here.