Talk Back Thursday

Thank you so much to Miss Linda, Lisa Laree, Amelia, Mamafitz, Joanne, Becky, Claire, Alison, Donna Hodgson, Vicki, Toni, Summerset and Shawnta for "talking back" to my recent Friday Confession! I confessed that I use Coats and Clark thread, and asked if people thought that there was a difference between thread brands.

The top three brands of thread mentioned were, not surprisingly, Gutermann (6 "votes"), Coats & Clark (5 "votes") and Mettler (3 "votes").

While a few people avoid Coats & Clark and/or have heard bad things about it, other people don't feel that there are large differences between the brands and allow their choice to be dictated by the best color match and/or the most convenient purchase.

A couple of people specified that they'll use C&C for the primary construction of a garment, but prefer Mettler (esp. the silk finish cotton) for decorative top stitching and/or working with fine fabrics.

Shawnta pointed out that it's possible to get a bad spool of thread - maybe it's just old - and that doesn't necessarily mean that the whole brand is bad.

Miss Linda went "above and beyond" by doing some internet research on the topic for us. She found an article that shows microscopic pictures and counts loose fibers per thread strand to compare different brands of thread. This article suggests that C&C cotton is quite good, but C&C all purpose is lower quality.

This inspired me to do a bit of my own internet research, and I found this page full of interesting information entitled "Threads 101". (Note that it is on a site devoted to quilting.)

One variable came up in the comments that was new to me - Mamafitz mentioned preferring threads that are crosswound. I found some information on the two types of winding on this site. Apparently the way in which a spool was threaded originally dictates how it will unwind most smoothly. Crosswound threads unwind best from the top, while stacked (or horizontally wound) threads unwind best from the side. This is important because if you unwind a thread in the less than optimal matter, it is much more likely to tangle.

Finally, it turns out that Shannon of Hungry Zombie Couture recently posted about her love affair with thread. She uses 100% polyestor Gutermann thread and recommended a good online source for it - Cleaner's Supply (under Tailoring).

Thanks again to everyone who took the time and effort to reply! Extra special thanks to Miss Linda for doing some internet research for us all! :)