What makes thread

Buttonhole and carpet threads: Heavy duty and designed for heavy fabric where additional strength is desired. Often used for hand-sewing, it will work in the bobbin of most sewing machines and can give your sewing a decorative effect. General purpose thread: A medium-weight thread made from cotton, silk, polyester or a blend of cotton and polyester.

Cotton is usually mercerized. This is a finishing process that makes the thread smooth and shiny and adds strength. Cotton mercerized thread is ideal for woven fabrics that require little or no stretch in the seams. Cotton is also heat-resistant, making it a better choice for quilting because of the need for pressed, consistent seams. Silk is natural fiber that is strong and very fine. It has some stretch which makes it a better choice for topstitching or tailoring when the fabric needs some shaping and some give.

Polyester is suitable for most fabrics because it has some stretch. It is a better choice for knit fabrics but may break cotton fibers if the knits are designed with cotton fiber. Blended threads are suitable for knits, wovens, man-made or natural fabrics. Sewing threads are generally used to assemble sewn products together, and the quality of the seam is dependent on the quality of the sewing thread used. Each market may require a thread with different physical properties to achieve optimum sewing and seaming performance.

If you consider the many uses of thread, the complexity of designing a thread is apparent. Consideration must be given to: sewability, seam performance, seam appearance, not to mention availability and cost. Physical characteristics that vary from fiber type and thread construction include: tenacity, loop strength, linear strength, elongation, elastic recovery, loop formation, twist construction, ply security, shrinkage, stitch appearance, colorfastness, resistance to abrasion, chemicals, heat, and light.

Therefore using the proper thread for an application will determine the overall quality of your sewn products. Other factors that are considered include the type of material being sewn, the type of sewing machines being used, conditions under which the product must perform, and cost effectiveness. Natural Fibe rs- Come from plants or animals and are spun or twisted into yarns. Cotton is the most common natural fiber used to make thread.

Natural fibers are generally not as uniform as synthetic fibers and are affected by climatic changes. SAK is generally a higher quality cotton that produces stronger spun cotton threads than CP fibers. Synthetic Fibers- Are made from various chemicals that are then melt-spun or wet-spun into a continuous filament fibers. We select our synthetic fibers based on their sewability characteristics, seam performance, ease of dying, colorfastness, pricing and sustainability.

Fibers Forms- Sewing threads are made in seven different thread constructions using either staple fibers, continuous filament fibers, or a combination of both. Staple fibers are spun into a specific yarn cotton count — ex.

Continuous Filaments are used in the manufacturing of five thread constructions including: twisted multifilament, monocord, textured, air entangled and monofilament. Continuous filaments are normally sized using the denier system. Threads made from continuous filaments are generally stronger and have greater uniformity than threads made from staple fibers. This thread is available in a number of different sized spools metres, m, m and m as well as a wide colour range.

When working with Gutermann threads be sure you pick up the right thread when shopping, this is distinguished by the colour at the end of the spool. When should I use cotton thread? Some sewing purists believe that you should use the same thread as the fabric yarn content, so cotton thread should be used to sew cotton fabric.

But it can be perfect for use on lightweight, delicate projects as generally speaking you want the thread to be weaker than the fabric your working with, so any stress on seams causes the thread to break, rather than the fabric to tear.

Sewing with silk thread? Silk is a beautiful thread to work with; both on and off the sewing machine. I predominately use silk thread when hand sewing; finishing hems, basting tacking , buttonholes and tailoring work. Silk thread is very smooth so travels through even the lightest most delicate fabrics without leaving a mark, as well as being very strong especially when used in conjunction with beeswax , it is a superb choice for a large variety of hand sewing projects.

Other uses include decorative stitching. On the sewing machine I use silk thread on the top spool when quilting Chanel style jackets. The thread is wonderful at sinking into the textured loose weave. The worms use the cocoons to transform into moths, but afterwards, the cocoons are harvested to produce silk this is called schappe silk. The cocoon material is softened through washing and drying it.

To finish the process, the roving is spun to form a single thread, which is combined with other single threads, and twisted onto a bobbin or cone.

If you're more of a visual learner, check out this quick 5 minute video! Cotton grows on cotton plants, and can be picked, combed, and cleaned. After all the dirt and other plant materials have been sorted away, cotton fibers go through roller after roller to generate narrower and narrower bands of thread.

Cotton threads join up together to create thread of all thicknesses. These threads are very high quality and come in tons of colors. Check it out for factory shots of the process of weaving Egyptian cotton into a spool of thread. We humans make polyester out of petroleum, the same original ingredient in gasoline. The process of modifying and producing thread out of petroleum has a lot to do with the extraction of chemicals, and a scientific process of refinement.

The tow is then stretched to its limit, and cut at its weakest points, so that only the strong fibers remain! The strong bands are combined to make a narrow, even, high-quality fiber, twisted up and stretched by machines until they are ready for their turn to be wound onto cones. After each thread goes through its own combing and twisting and winding process, they all end their birth story in a similar way: dyeing.

Click here to read Part Two! Thank you for educating me up on thread. Thank you again. Have a wonderful day!!