Different Types of Thread for Sewing

There're many many different types of thread available on the market today. And using the right kind of thread in your project, can help make your end results, what you want it. And it can make it look a little bit better. Now, when I first started sewing I only sewed with one type of thread. It was just the general all-purpose thread that you can get usually even in the checkout lane of many fabric stores. And that's what I used on pretty much everything. An all purpose thread is generally some sort of cotton polyester blend. So this is an example of one here, and there are many different brands of thread, out there available today. This is just the one that I've picked right now. And so on your thread label, on either side where the stickers are at, it will generally tell you what your thread is made of. So on here, this is 60% polyester, 40% cotton. So this is a good all purpose thread. You can use it when sewing with polyester fabric, with sewing with cotton fabric, and it will generally work for any project that you're working on. So if you do just, little bit of sewing maybe some mending, not a whole lot of intricate garment sewing or anything like that, having just all purpose thread in your sewing room is perfectly fine, and will get you through pretty much any sewing project that you wanna do. If you are doing a lot of sewing with, say quilting cottons. Whether you're doing, you know, home decor sewing, or even some quilting, you'll wanna use 100% cotton thread. It's always a good idea if you don't know what kind of thread to use with a certain type of fabric, to match your fabric content, with your thread content. So 100% cotton fabric would use 100% cotton thread. There are many different weights of cotton thread available. The most common weights are 40, 50 and 60 weight thread. Now the weight of thread refers to how thick, the thread is. So here's just some thread coming off of here. Again on the labels, on the bottom of your thread it should tell you whether it's 40, 50 or 60 weight. The smaller the number, the larger the threads. So it's a little bit backwards when you're thinking about it, but that is in terms of thread weight. Now there are some thread manufacturers. I stuck my little sticker down in here. That rather than using weight, they use what's called tex. So it's just T E X. So if you see on the bottom of your thread spool it has a W T, that stands for a weight or it has a T E X, that's a text size. So, there's a whole big formula to figure out what tech size is. But in general, if you're going with weight, the smaller the number, the larger the thread, where tech size is just the opposite. So the larger the number goes, the larger the thread. And that's really the most important thing you need to know about those different sizes, when it comes to the weight of thread. Now if you do a lot of quilting, you may use a different weight of thread for your , versus for your quilting and using a heavier weight or thinner weight thread allows your stitching to stand out more. If you're not doing a lot of stitching that is seen, on the outside of a project, you can pick a 50 weight thread. It's kind of right in the middle, and that will work for most of your sewing needs. If you want your thread to really really stand out, you can pick a 40 or even a 30 weight thread, when you're doing something like top stitching, that's a much thicker thread, and it will really stand out and add extra dimension or a look to your stitching. Some of the other fun types of threads that you can get include, this is a silk thread. So silk thread is very very strong, it's very very fine. And it's perfect for when you're sewing silk, or satin fabrics. You definitely want to use something like this if you are making a really really nice fancy silk shirt or silk dress. You're putting a lot of time into it, you definitely wanna make sure you're using a nice thread for that. Again, this is a very strong thread too. So if you're sewing on a project where you know it's going to get it sort of a lot of pull, or a lot of wear like that, this thread will hold up very nicely for that. Another common type of thread to use, maybe more for embroidery, or for some other decorative top stitching is, rayon thread. So these are some samples of rayon thread, and what the labels might look like. So this one here has rayon written right there. This one says rayon, while this one says viscose, and viscose/rayon. They are considered the same type of thread. Rayon is used a lot on garments, that are maybe made of a special sort of shiny fabric because rayon thread has a little bit of a sheen to it. It's also a fairly strong thread. It tends to be fairly color fast. So you don't have to worry about some of the really fun vibrant colors bleeding when it comes to this kind of thread. But it has no give to it whatsoever. It's a lot like cotton thread. So if your fabric that you're sowing has any kind of stretch to it, you wanna avoid using the rayon thread, and go with either your all purpose thread, which was that blend, or go with a thread that is 100% polyester. This thread will give you the most amount of stretch, when it comes to sewing your projects, and is a good choice. So again it'll say on your label whether it's polyester cotton, or what it's made of. Another fun thread to use, maybe if you're going to be doing some decorative top stitching or even some simple monogramming or embroidering, is again you could use that rayon thread, or you can use what's called 100% acrylic thread, or sometimes referred to as embroidery thread. And just like rayon it has a really nice sheen to it. And looks very nice, when you're doing something like embroidery. Another fun, more decorative type of thread to use, is a metallic thread. Metallic thread is a little bit different in how it's made. Generally it'll have a nylon core, and then it will have all of these little sort of metallic specs, that are wrapped around it. And that's what gives it the metallic look. So, as you're using the metallic thread, or if you're looking at, I don't know if you can really see here, let me pull somewhere out. It actually separates. So you can actually pull apart the thread, and separate this little, nylon core from, the actual metallic pieces. So it tends to fray a lot. Now, when you're sewing with metallic thread you definitely wanna make sure that you're using some kind of metallic needle, because that's going to have a larger eye opening, because if you don't do that, then all of this fraying of the thread can happen while you're stitching, and you'll end up with sort of this bunched up thread, right around the eye of the needle. So you can see I've just separated. In my right hand here is the actual metallic pieces, in my left hand is sort of that thread core. But, if you're using the proper needle when sewing with metallic thread, is definitely a fun way to add some extra shine and sparkle to your projects. Another fun thread type depending on what you're sewing, if you're sewing something where you absolutely don't wanna see any thread, and maybe you're using a fabric that doesn't allow you to match your thread color to your fabric, maybe it's some really crazy print or something and it'd be hard to sort of match everywhere along that print, you can use what's called clear thread, transparent thread, monofilament thread, and it's essentially invisible thread. There have actually been quite a few advancements, in clear thread over the years. It used to be, you could only find nylon invisible thread, which has sort of the feel of fishing line. So it's not necessarily the most comfortable thing against your skin, if you are sewing in a garment, but now you can actually find invisible thread that is polyester, or some kind of blend of polyester and nylon. And it's actually a lot softer. So, I think clear thread used to kind of get a bad rap but it's actually a really fun thread to use, and definitely something that you can use to blend right into your projects. And now there are many many different types of thread out there, in terms of polyester, cotton, rayon, all of that. And so that was sort of a brief overview of the different types of thread. When you're sewing, another thing that you may want to consider is, how much thread you're going to be using in your project. So as you can see here, threads spools come in many different shapes and sizes, and they hold a lot of different thread. So if you know that you're going to be, maybe sewing something small, like a little hot pad, you could get away with a smaller spool of thread, one that doesn't hold as much thread. But if you're gonna make even a quilt or something much larger, and you wanna use a lot of thread and you don't want to have to constantly be changing your thread, definitely buy some sort of spool that is larger. Also you wanna look at, how much thread is on the spools. So even if two spools look fairly similar, in the amount of thread they can hold, you want to look and see on the label, if it says, how much thread is on there. So if you can see on here these rayon spools of thread, hold 850 yards of thread. So that is a fairly large amount of thread. This one, I ordered it from a different company so it doesn't use yards, it uses meters. But all of these spools of thread should tell you how much is on them. So even if they may look the same size, given their weight or their thickness of thread, the spools may not hold as much. But so next time you are planning out your project, again if it's just a simple project and you don't wanna buy any specialty thread, use all purpose, which is a cotton or polyester blend, or match your fabric to your thread. So silk fabric, gets silk thread and so on. So definitely try out some of these other fun types of thread, and I think you'll find they'll add an extra special touch, to your next project.