Thread Heaven | Part 2- Polyester & Metallic

Since I am often asked to mend clothing I still have a small supply of Gutermann all-purpose polyester thread in limited colours in my thread drawer. Polyester thread is stronger than cotton so it's more suitable for garments. All you have to do is try snapping a strand of each thread in between your fingers and you'll see the difference...you might even get a small cut in your finger from the polyester...kind of like a paper cut. 

One of my favourite polyester threads is Invisifil by Wonderfil. It's a super fine 100 wt thread that I use for a couple of very different reasons. The first thing I use it for is when mending/hemming garments. Because the thread is so fine it almost becomes invisible when hemming my dress pants using a blind hem foot...I guess that's why it was named Invisifil!  

Invisifil often makes its way into my quilting as well. For machine appliqué I love colour 114 (I call it taupe, but the company calls it brown grey). For some reason this one blends into nearly every colour of fabric except super light or super dark, and even then it's not in-your-face noticeable. I also love Invisifil for machine quilting. It's perfect for adding texture instead of highlighting the quilting...great for background filler. Recently I’ve gotten back into English paper piecing and this thread becomes virtually invisible when hand sewing the patches together. (below- brown grey # 114, teal # 607, chartreuse # 702, and on the quilted sample grey # 103)

For those of you who do quilting and machine embroidery you probably already have some really beautiful embroidery threads in your stash. Floriani has a gorgeous 100% polyester 40 wt embroidery thread that is colour fast and has an incredible sheen. I often use it to highlight quilting on wallhangings or decorative pieces for a little more oomph. The sample shown below uses turquoise PF376 on a purple print fabric.

(below- neon lime PF 14, neon orange PF 5, purple PF694)

On a bit of a side note (since we're talking about polyester threads here) for those of you who do a lot of machine embroidery you should be using a bobbin thread. It is much finer than the top embroidery thread and will add less bulk to the embroidery designs. They sometimes come in pre-wound bobbins, but be sure to get the right bobbin for your machine (they are not universal). Wonderfil has a great 80 wt bobbin thread called Deco-Bob, but there are many others on the market you can try.

When I do quilt with metallic threads there are really only two that I use...Floriani Metallic and Sulky Sliver. After being extremely frustrated with 2 other brands I tried in the past I started using Floriani Metallic after it was recommended to me by Shirley at The Ultimate Sewing Centre. There has been absolutely no breakage unless it was my own error. It is super strong and comes in about 18 colours...I think I have 8 of them! 

Sulky Sliver is a flat ribbon-like thread (think tinsel at Christmas!) that has the most incredible shine to it. I love using it to highlight specific areas in my wallhangings. My fave is Opalescent because it takes on the colour of the fabric its sewn on and looks soooo gorgeous, but there are 23 other amazing colours to choose from. 

(right: Floriani Metallic G3, Sulky Sliver- Opalescent # 8040, Silver # 8001, Mint Green (more like turquoise) # 8053)

Just like Silco in the previous post, metallic thread performs best when coming off the side of the spool not the top...more on that here...and all above samples were stitched using a Schmetz 80/12 Topstitch needle.  

Give these threads a try if you haven't already. When sewing with metallic threads remember to slow down a little, use the proper needle and breathe!!! Have fun!