Is Polyester Thread Evil? Podcast Episode #38

LeahDay

Leah Day has been teaching online since 2009. She's the creator of the Free Motion Quilting Project, a blog filled with thousands of quilting tutorial videos. Leah has written several books including 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs, Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day, and Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

8 Responses

  1. I love Isocord for quilting. Strong and great shine and finer than many quilting threads.

  2. Rebecca says:

    I actually do have a quilt that shredded on the poly/cotton blend quilting lines. However! There are more factors involved. The quilt is about 20 years old. I was using my Clark's "Double Duty" thread left over from garment sewing. I was also using "homespun" fabric from a big chain store, which is a rather fragile fabric, and, in hindsight, my quilting is way too sparse (putting more pressure on each line of quilting.) I think the upshot is that the fault lies in the fabric more than the thread, and today I am perfectly willing to use polyester thread.

  3. Penelope says:

    In the past I thought cotton thread is the best and I used it for garments, curtains and quilt piecing. I have learned the hard way that it is not with work with curtains and quilts. I live in South America and the sun dissolves the cotton thread over time. I have an old quilt that was much loved and washed and all seams went open after the years. Now I only sew with polyester tread and that works great

  4. I have arc and Madeira polyester thread. Should i try it or is there something about the Isacord that the others dont have. I embroider so i have a bunch of the other thread.

  5. Leah Day says:

    I would stick with what works for you! If you already have lots of Arc and Maderia and it's working well for you, why try anything else? I don't believe in shelling out tons of cash just to keep trying new things, especially when you have an established stash.

  6. Thank you. I have never free motion quilted before, but good to know about this thread. I am set for a while then and have every color under the sun. Have a Merry Christmas.

  7. diana melillo says:

    Thank you Leah for bringing this topic up about polyester thread. I noticed that I have a lot more lint in my bobbin case when using cotton thread vs. using polyester thread. Leah, do you use polyester thread for piecing as well?

    • LeahDay says:

      You’re completely right Diana! Cotton thread breaks down as it feeds to the machine and builds up a lot more lint in the bobbin case. No, unfortunately polyester thread is too slippery for piecing. I’m not saying I NEVER use it (because sometimes I’m too lazy to re-thread my machine), but for the most part I piece with Aurifil 50 wt Mako Cotton. It’s a lot less linty than other brands of cotton thread. I think cotton is better for piecing because it’s not slippery and really locks the pieces together.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *