Viral video shows we’ve been threading needles wrong our whole lives

As a kid, were you ever taught how to thread a needle? I have to admit that I never quite learned to sew, and I usually give even the most minor of tears in my clothing to the dry cleaner to fix. Still, I’ve been confident in the knowledge that I at least know how to thread a needle.

Well, that’s what I thought until I saw this viral video.

My confidence has been rocked in the wake of watching a fascinating clip that seems to prove that the way you’ve likely been threading a needle your entire life is making the job harder than it needs to be. The video in question was posted by the Facebook page 5-Minute Crafts and shows that if you place a piece of thread flat in your palm and then lay the needle down flat with the eye on the thread, the threading will magically happen on its own if you vigorously roll the needle back and forth.

Check out the simple-looking trick in action below. It’s covered in the first 30 seconds of the full video, which shows a few other sewing hacks as well.

OK, that’s pretty amazing and looks like a real effort-saver, but does this viral hack for threading needles actually work? I tried the trick out for myself and can confirm it works. However, the web at large is divided on how effective this sewing hack is.

MORE: Our most popular life hacks of 2023

The Facebook video above has been watched more than 97 million times since it was posted in January 2018. There are more than 18,000 comments and plenty of them are gripes. While many users commented that they found the trick extremely useful and were blown away that they hadn’t known about it sooner, some replies indicate that the hack didn’t quite work out for them.

Slate even published an entire article on one writer’s attempt to thread a needle using the viral hack — with a video of her trials — and came to the conclusion that it doesn’t work. Some comments online have indicated that the trick will only work with certain types of thread.

If learning how to easily thread a needle has you inspired, check out our guide for starting sewing.

Clint Davis contributed to this report.