Thread Quality Question

Sharon, I have no problem using C&C thread in my Viking Freesia, but the Bernettes do NOT like it at all.

Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati

another Sharon spray painted on a boxcar:

C & C and Talon are junk thread. It breaks easily and breakdown quickly with age. I believe that those thread are made out of lesser quality material, short staple cotton which has no strength.

I use a C & C tex 40 commercial weight that I mail order, or if I buy in the store I use Mettelr, Metrosene or Gutterman.

Penny S

I have no problem with C&C, and I've got shirts that are 15 years old that are built with C&C thread. I don't use Talon, because none of the stores around here carry it. I usually use MaxiLock in my serger.

Neither my Viking, my White, or the Singer (when I had it) liked Gutterman at all.... It would shred and break, even after I released all the tension disks, cleaned them, and re-set them for the Gutterman thread. Then I'd have to do the whole thing again to get all the Gutterman shreds out before I went back to the C&C.

ymmv

jenn

-- Jenn Ridley snipped-for-privacy@chartermi.net

My Lily will sew with most threads, only really spitting out one reel of an otherwise good brand. I put it down to an old faulty reel, and chucked it. Doesn't bother about the cost, but you do get better results with better thread. The serger will use anything I can thread it with! Again, you get better looking results with better thread. So long as the thread is new (rather than factory cast off that may have lain around for several years before being sold on), you shouldn't have too much problem

Quite a few shops will recommend the brand of thread they sell over all others, and sometimes there's an advertising deal with the thread companies - certain machine companies will recommend certain threads, and if you look at old ad campaigns, you'll see that 5 years ago they were recommending X thread and now they are promoting Y thread... So long as the thread is good quality, it should be fine, but even cheap thread can work suprisingly well. As far as I know there os no 'problem' with Coats & Clark's thread. I find that their Sylco is fine, as is the Star quilting thread, but I have never liked Drima: it's VERY tightly wound, and I get far more snarls with it than with almost any other brand I can think of. Not too much of a problem with machine sewing, but a right royal pain in the posterior for hand sewing!

I never buy Guttermann serger thread unless I'm stuck: it comes on small and expensive cops rather than big cheap cones. I use Guttermann all the time because it's readily available.

The straight cotton mercerized thread they make isn't too awful, but the dual-duty is the worst of both worlds, in my opinion. My Viking 350 will use it, but the amount of dust and lint it creates in the machine is much higher than if I'm using just about any other brand of thread.

My personal opinion: if you see good thread on sale, buy whatever colors they have in big spools that fits in with your personal wardrobe/fabric stash. I have, I believe, every color of grey (a great blender with just about any color except black or white), navy, beige, green, and red Gutermann makes on big spools. Plus quantities of black and white on even bigger spools. (I figure the thread companies know their most popular/useful colors and put them on big spools, so that's what I reach for when I'm buying thread without a particular project in mind.) I also have a lot of the smaller spools in my commonly sewn color range. If I buy fabric that is "outside my likely color range" or that I know I'm going to be doing a lot of topstitching on, I just buy a spool of best match good thread at the time I buy the fabric.

I'm doing the same thing with Mettler as Gutermann, now, too, since I have a local source for it that goes on sale.

If you're looking for good plain cotton thread, the nicest I've found has been Aurifil, an Italian thread made with long strand Egyptian cotton. Strong, smooth, wonderful to work with. I either have to mail order it or wait for the Puyallup sewing show. Their black and white cotton bobbin thread is available in a very fine weight, great for sewing batiste and lawn and fine silks. Black or white only, though, alas.

Kay Lancaster snipped-for-privacy@fern.com

Ooh, I never thought of using bobbin thread for fine fabric! Great idea! I have white, and (I think) also baby pink and blue. Not sure of the brand (I am up and they are downstairs); I bought the spools when a shop was going out of business. I bought lots of thread, buttons, some fabric (not a big selection) and bobbins, odds and ends. A fun shopping trip.

I have a Bernina and it hates C and C. It shreds it to pieces. I use Mettler Metrosene exclusively (my interests are centered on clothing construction). Have you checked Nancy's Notions? In the current catalog, they have a collection of either 18 or 28 spools of Metrosene in a box, assorted colors - that is pretty handy to have. The box of 18 spools (109 yds.) is $24.99 and the box of 28 spools is $37.99. NAYY.

If you plan to sew red, aubergine(eggplant) or brown, burgundy is a good colour to get too. It blends with most deep reddish colours.

Sally H

no matter what you use, you might be interested in some sites that sell thread at reduced prices:

this site has partially used 5,000 ydspools-not easy to find what you want or need, but a fun place to lookaround. right now, do a search for macassort and you'll see 3+ lbs ofthread for $10. A friend ordered the 3+ lbs assortment and receivedabout 20 spools. She was very happy with the quality & colors. i buy my 100% cottonthread here

has good prices on threads has the best prices on rayon & polyembroidery thread as well as stabilizers and other stuff-suggest youcheck out their specials every month. and each have the same products, butdifferent specials. You can see their colors better on their canadiansite (use google and look for marathon thread canada to find thesite.)

carries sulky andyli at reduced prices fabricsandnotions group at yahoo. this is a co-op run by 3 women who sell sewing notions (such as schmetz, yli products, hemline luggage, gingher scissors, olfa mats & cutters) for wholesale cost + 5% and actual shipping. You'll need to join the group at before you can buy anything. An example ofpricing--in the august co-op, woolly nylon was $3.20 for a 1000 meterspool and pearl crown rayon is $2.31/100 yd spool if you do join thisgroup, when you get to the page that asks how you want to be notifiedof posts to the group, select "special announcements", otherwiseyou'll be flooded with messages from group members asking about theirorders.

has good prices on hard-to-find madeiraspecialty threads, such as the #20 fs 2/2 metallic embroidery thread @$5.70/612 yd spool.

carries arc, isacord, &yenmet at excellent prices and has specials on a regular basis carries lotsof sewing notions & threads at low prices. If you select "view byproduct type", there's a section called "specials" that is worth alook. I think shipping is a flat rate of $5.50 madeira specialty threads

I've had the same experience, Jenn.

But then, I also own several Singers, so what do I know? LOL

Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati

That's one more color than my cotton thread comes in! Where do you mail-order Aurifil?

I use DMC Cordonnette #100, which comes only in white and off-white. #100/6 ( = #50/3 sewing thread) is now the finest they make, but I have a treasured ball of #150. I buy Cordonnette online from various lacemakers'-supply houses, such as Holly van Sciver and Snowgoose.

When color match is more important than strength, I buy Guetermann 50/3 at our only fabric shop.

I walked in carrying a swatch of beige twill, a clerk cut me off as I was heading for the threads, reached directly for a gray spool I would never have looked at, and when she unreeled the end of the thread and laid it across my swatch, it matched perfectly! That thread even matches fabrics she never saw, and I had to go back for another spool twice.

(The two other fabrics were chosen to harmonize with the beige twill.)

I've never had a thread disagree with my sewing machine, but I've had shirts assembled with "bargain" thread fall apart in the washer.

The spools that my "Subsilk" came on are very nice, though. I used to wind my Cordonnette on them, until I worked out a dispenser that feeds directly off the ball. Well, off the ball, over a knitting needle, and by way of three safety pins up the curtain, across the window, and down to the hole in the Necchi's cam-compartment lever, which happens to be close to the spool pin. (Maybe that is why they put a hole in it?)

I've no opinions on silk, nylon, rayon, and polyester. Except that each should be used where it's appropriate.

As far as I know, only Tire and YLI make sewing silk. (Spun silk isn't very strong, but I sometimes use it for hemming and topstitching when I haven't got the right color of sewing silk, or when I want a matte thread and plant fiber won't do.)

On blended sewing thread (Dual Duty, for example) my opinion is both definite and unprintable. I did discover that it has a purpose in factories, where sewing machines operate so fast that the needle gets hot.

Joy Beeson

Then it is probably the same as mine!!

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Wow, this is a wonderful thread (pun not intended) and I thank you all for such fantastic information. It must be the best, most comprehensive info available on this topic and I'm saving it all for future information. You all could give a seminar on this topic. Thanks so much! another Sharon

Tristan Embroidery in BC is where I got my first spools. There are a number of places on their web page (Tristan is the North American distributor):

> off-white. #100/6 ( = #50/3 sewing thread) is now the> finest they make, but I have a treasured ball of #150. I> buy Cordonnette online from various lacemakers'-supply> houses, such as Holly van Sciver and Snowgoose. Alas, Aurifil bobbin is 80 wt, so I'm not sure if it correspondsto 150 or not. They also make their regular cotton thread in50, 40, 28 and 12 wt (increasing order of thickness); 173 colors > When color match is more important than strength, I buy> Guetermann 50/3 at our only fabric shop.>

oopsie!

That's determined! 8-)

I definitely like Tire better than YLI's silk threads.

is where I get mine -- alsoa Puyallup sewing show vendor. Kay

It's a hand quilting thread, and it stinks! I'd rather use Drima!

and unprintable.

Over here in the U.S. it is sold as THE all-purpose thread, by all the regular fabric stores, and I have a heck of a time finding 100% cotton in any but a very few colors. Many people use strictly polyester thread (Gutermann etc.) but I like to match the thread to the fabric, cotton for cotton etc. Finally, a cyberfriend advised me to go to the quilt shops for cotton thread in a wide variety of colors and shades, and that is what I do now.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Bookmarked -- thank you.

I hang out at the Silkthings page sometimes, but shipping charges make it expensive to buy a single spool of thread, so I've been waiting until I'm actually about to use it, in case I want something else at the same time.

I thought the time had come last week, when I found only one spool of light-colored thread to sew the wool jersey I'm about to cut out -- I need two, since my "40-yd" sewing-machine bobbins will hold an entire 100-yd spool of size A sewing silk -- but later noticed that I have a bobbin already wound with white silk.

Then yesterday I was thinking about the hat I want to make, reflected that I need a plain silk scarf to go with it -- my blue, purple, white, and yellow scarf is lovely, but doesn't go with most of my outfits -- remembered that I have two yards of black habotai that I bought to make facings and bias tape, remembered that size A felt like rope when I was hemming a scarf that's heavier than the habotai, and my black Guetermann is even coarser, so I do need some #100 silk thread -- but I'll hem the scarf by hand, so I might as well use ravelings and be sure the thread will continue to match.

I'll be back at Silkthings when it's time to make my wool suit.

When counting my spools of silk thread, I discovered that I have a partial spool of black fly-tying silk, probably finer than size A. Cain't find a diameter on any of them; size seems to have been coded exclusively by label color.

There are two other spools of fly-tying silk, fourteen spools of size A silk, nineteen spools of size D (buttonhole) silk, and three spools of Guetermann. When the only way you could buy silk was to find it in a bargain bucket of discontinued threads, I made sure no such bucket still had silk thread in it when I left the store -- and then I stopped making my own bike shorts, so I didn't need silk thread again until Phoenix Textiles came along.

Joy Beeson

Rice's? That was nice stuff. Haven't seen it in years.

A woman after my own heart.

I have not tried this thread, but it sure looks interesting if you use a lot of light colored silk thread:

Hisaka Nakaya at Professional Sewing Supplies in Seattle has some wonderful silk basting thread I use-- since it's expensive, I just pull the basting and use it again and again and again. She also carries some of the best hand needles I've ever used, in an assortment. Alas, they're not the embroidery needles I prefer (easier to thread), but they feel great in your hand.

Kay

Baer's in Louisville has this; I just saw it there last month.

Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati