Am constantly amazed by the prices some people are willing to pay for vintage sewing/embroidery threads. You know, the stuff on wooden spools that is 40 or more years old.
Always thought that "old" thread was dry, brittle and likely to break during sewing and or make for not very long lasting seams. Know many people think, "things were made better back then", myself included. But for certain items just think it is more bother than it's worth. What is the point of going through all the trouble choosing a pattern, fabric, and everything else if one is going to run up the project with some cheap old thread?
Candide
"Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It's cheaper." Quentin Crisp 1908 - 1999 _+_+_+_+_+_+__+_+_+_+_
Merciful Heavens!! Do people really BUY this stuff?? I have some of those in among the old threads I was going to use up for staystitching new fabric before I pre-wash it. Likewise I also have a box of old, empty wooden spools somewhere which I thought might come in useful for a craft project some day. I want to get some of the junk OUTTA here, not add to it!!
I though that people just collected antique/vintage sewing items--patterns, wooden thread spools, needle packs, and pincushions, etc. I remember receiving the Clotilde sewing catalogue one time and she featured her collection of antique sewing items that she owns. Maybe having the thread intact on the spool adds to the "value" in the collector world? *shrug* I'm with Olwyn Mary, get it out of my house! :-)
Roam around fleaBay sometime to get a general idea. Have to say it seems vintage silk/embroidery threads by brands such as Lily, and Clark's
*ONT* seem to be popular. Watched an auction for a box of "hemstitching" thread do quite well.
Have some old threads, some purchased over the years and stashed away, but never used; most from buying vintage sewing boxes from thrifts or fleaBay which came loaded with "goodies". Use them mostly for stay stitching, testing fabrics/threading/tension. Don't do it too often as my Pfaff is VERY picky about threads, especially the linty type.
Olwyn Mary, if you have a local "Joy Sprouts" troop in your area, they may like to have the threads. Also remember reading a posting on the Yahoo Elna group, from a lady down your way writing on behalf her sewing group. Seems they all lost everything sewing related to Katrina and are seeking donations of sewing related items to help them get back on their feet. Apparently sewing was the thing that these ladies loved and are eager to get things back to "normal".
They must. I was just at a very large antique mall in northwestern Ohio yesterday, a place called Jeffrey's that I try to visit whenever I visit my daughter in Toledo, and saw old thread for sale. And even more mysteriously, there were lots of old metal canisters of spices, some with the ancient, dried-out spices still in them--selling from $4-8.50!
I suspect that the old wooden spools are the draw, not the fragile thread, although I do have some old silk thread of my grandmother's (>
Just took a peek through my sewing box, and there are several spools of vintage Lilly embroidery thread. The box was an eBay find, and the threads came along. Going to run up some embroidery stitching on my "new" Elna machine to see how things go.
Will give you that some of the colours of vintage threads,especially Belding/ Corticelli silk embroidery are so gorgeous. Just saw must be a rather rare shade called "parakeet", and had to keep my fingers still from bidding.
I one time did a service call to the local dry cleaners. They called complaining the machine was breaking thread. I went and they had a whole wall of old wood spool threads they were using. That was the problem not the machine. When I asked why they used that He told me you just can not find those colors any more.
Hi: I don't "do" Yahoo, but if you could forward me the post or something I could make sure they are in touch with the right people. I know our local ASG was doing something like that, but I wasn't able to get to the meeting to find out how it went.
Only today, I pulled out an old spool of Greyspool. It looked good, even less linty than Gutterman, but I just didn't examine enough of it. It kept bouncing out of the uptake lever and breaking. First I blamed the needle even though the needle was fairly new and looked & felt good. It kept doing it after the needle change so I switched to Metrosene and all was well again. Then I drew out a few yards of the Greyspool and discovered it was slubby. I'll use it up on the serger in one of the loopers since it is strong.
I'm so glad we have more thread choices now for regular and other threads. I just love So Fine and Bottom Line from Superior. More colors in So Fine would be nice. And, of course, Mettler continues to make good thread but their thread selection in the larger tubes of Metrosene is rather pathetic and I don't like those tiny little 100 yard tubes. They take up so darn much room on a rack for so pathetically little thread.
Oh. Some of them are luscious colors, yes. Of late, the only place I have been able to find cotton thread in a wide variety of colors is the quilt shop (and I don't quilt). Perhaps I'll hold onto them for a little while longer. Never mind, I still have a bunch of cheap polyester type threads which came in a rummage sale box along with some real goodies, so I'll just use those up.
Here is the original post. They are a quilting group, but guess that counts under "sewing".
"Hi my name is Dolores"
"I have been reading some of your e-mails over the past few months to others who enjoy sewing as much as you do. I am in a quilting group from the Lower nineth ward in New Orleans and we all have lost everything we own including our beloved sewing machines, materials, notions,patterns,threads, books, yarn, needles, everything. We are scattered about but at least 5 of us are in the baton rouge, liberty ms, and mccomb ms area. If you can put the word out to help send whatever you can by way of patterns (copies) of paper foundation, quilt patterns and the like we would surly appreciate it. We are trying to keep sane by sewing and keeping our group together as often as possible. We try to meet once a month until we can figure out where we can meet regularly. Anything you can send we will be grateful. A fellow and former owner of an Elna sewing machine" Thank you inadvance Dolores Butler Sew-Sowers of New Orleans
+++++++
Not sure about posting a person's email addy online, but let me know what you think.
You might be onto something there. From what one has seen many vintage threads came in such a wonderful array of gorgeous and brilliant colours, especially silk and cotton. So much sewing today is done with polyester or polyester/cotton thread that guess the demand for pure cottons slacked to the point it was no longer competitive to produce all those beautiful colours.
What is really hard to find is fine linen thread. I like it for hemstitching bed and table linens made of pure linen, and mending/repair work on the same. Only thing am able to find at times is the thick and heavy linen thread one used for making shoes.
Candide
"Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It's cheaper." Quentin Crisp 1908 - 1999 _+_+_+_+_+_+__+_+_+_+_
I imagine that by now the good folks in Baton Rouge, Liberty and McComb will have taken care of this, but let us check it out. As you are on that list, could you post a query asking if they still need stuff?
The reason I ask is that (unlike our government), the American people - and the Canadians and those from several other countries, too - have produced a great outpouring of love and care, sending us stuff, coming to volunteer, helping out however they can, while the government and the insurance companies seem to rejoice in putting obstacles in the way of the recovery. This area was 80% destroyed when the levees gave way. Ten months later, it is still 75% devastated.. Everyone who comes to visit says "I never dreamed it was this bad, until you see it in person, you have no idea."
When we were first allowed back into town, my church was virtually unharmed, so we were the hq for giving out donated supplies. We filled every classroom, turfed some people out of their offices, filled two courtyards, all with donated supplies, and we gave away every bit of it, until the lakefront area was opened and we were able to get a (donated) travel trailer next to the college mission there, and operations were moved there. Cleaning supplies are still being given out, college students and others are spending their summer vacation here to help, and hardly a dent has been made.
OTOH, I KNOW we had a giveaway at the local ASG, and at the local needlework shop, and when members of our Weavers Guild went to a conference, they too were invited to "shop" for free amongst the supplies. Of course, the ones who lost their looms and spinning wheels will have to wait a while to replace those, but in any case they have no place to store such large items at present. A FEMA trailer is tiny.
Please check back with the original poster, if they still need supplies there are ways and means.
I couldn't agree more, the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans were just totally inept, before, during, and after the hurricanes. I cannot imagine what the people of NO were thinking in re-electing that doofus. "Chocolate City" indeed!
I'm a little surprised to hear that insurance companies are not complying with state regulations. Doesn't LA have an insurance commissioner/regulator to whom claimants can report poor performance?
He was talking to his own constituency. Remember, N.O. has more black voters than white ones. (also, that was MLK day, and I have a sneaking suspicion they had all been "celebrating" before the march). Actually, our governor fought very hard for her people, and continues to do so. The problem seemed to be that various MEN in national positions felt that because she was a woman, they could just ride roughshod over her. As many of the things they wanted to do were either useless or counterproductive, she fought back. Unfortunately, the national organisations set up specifically to serve the people, FEMA, Small Business Administration, Corps of Engineers, have been a sad disappointment, not to mention appallingly wasteful and inefficient.
Oh yes. What's more, I understand that office is currently suing some of the companies, as are many claimants, both individually and as class actions. I fear this will drag on for years, if not decades. Additionally, a number of companies are refusing to write any more policies anywhere in the state, just a they did to Florida after Hurricane Andrew.
Oh well, I really prefer not to talk about it except when I must, the reality is so depressing and I come into my studio to try to get away from it for a little while.
Beverly, I have to add this, in defense of the New Orleans/LA government. They got a lot of criticism for not getting everyone out, but so many people simply did not want to leave, and some absolutely did not believe the warnings. Just last week there were 200,000 evacuated in Wilkes Barre, PA because of the threat of the dam breaking, but not everyone would leave. They did not get any criticism. Nothing happened, of course, but if it had, who would have been "at fault" for those who elected to stay behind? Surely, it would have been their own fault.
I don't want to get into a war here, but I do think the mayor and governor of LA both got way more than their fair share of criticism. If the truth were allowed to be spoken, EVERYONE along the way, including the citizens themselves, had culpability.
InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.