My go-to thread for piecing has always been Coats & Clark All-Purpose, bought by the fistful at Joann's and anywhere else I could find it. It's corespun, which means it has a polyester core covered in another material -- which I always assumed was cotton (or used to be when I first started buying it...anyone remember this? Or am I imagining things?). When I'm in The Zone, I can go through a spool in just a few days.
It's held up well to washing and ironing, and has never let me down...until this week.
I was about 80% finished with the quilting on one of my baby quilts this weekend, the quilt bunched on the table next to me, when I noticed one of the seams in the middle of the quilt looked a little funny. It was raised a little, like I hadn't ironed it all the way. And when I grabbed between my thumb and forefinger to take a closer look, this happened:
The seam gave way under my thumbnail like I was perforating it, the thread brittle, crackling as it broke. You can see the spiky little thread ends on the top part of the seams in the picture (which showed up best in black and white) -- they were like little staples when I pulled them out with tweezers.
Panicked, I started looking at more of the seams and found another (where the pin is, which is strange because these pieces were constructed separately and ended up next to each other pretty much randomly). Sick to my stomach and afraid to go any further, I secured the spots with pins and set it aside until I could look at it without crying. It's still sitting on my cutting table.
Near as I can figure, I melted the thread -- which, as it turns out, is polyester covered in polyester, not cotton, and therefore might not stand up to the cotton setting as well as it should. But I'm using the same iron I've used for months with this same brand of thread, and didn't do anything different in constructing this quilt than any other. Maybe I hit a bad couple stretches of thread that weren't completely covered? All I know is I have a quilt that I've put a lot of time into that now has the potential to fall apart at first washing unless I can think of a way to fix it without totally messing up the existing quilting.
I love a challenge, but now? Not good timing.
Has this happened to anyone else? Or am I a cautionary tale?
9 comments:
that's terrible. It's certainly worth an email to Coats to ask them what's up. I've used Coat dual duty for years without problems, but more recently I switched to Aurifil, which is cotton, for my piecing.
I'm so sorry you had troubles with thread, it can sure be frustrating.
I've not used anything for 15 years for sewing except Mettler and Gutterman thread. Both made in Germany. I use other threads for embroidery, but most of those that I love are also made in Germany.
I haven't had this problem...and I use that occasionally. Was your thread old? That can be a problem...but probably not if you buy it by the handfulls. I tend to buy the Coast and Clark 100% mercerized cotton--it is sold in larger spools at Jo-Anns. Usually on the other side of the display with specialty threads. The problem is that there are limited colors...and it is 30 wt.
I also longarm and won't use polyester threads in my LA either--I'm sort of a cotton purist. I have thread problems before and I Superglued some stuff together--just at small points where the disaster happened. It washed up fine and nobody was the wiser. But the quilt still bugs me so I don't pull it out often...
Sorry about this...not your fault. Good luck!
Bummer...I think I'd be crying too. I used to use the C&C Zany Quilter mentioned but found it was so linty. I switched to Aurifil. Because its a finer thread my scant 1/4" is much more accurate and there's almost no lint. I won't use anything else now.
I would have been so upset! I second the suggestion to contact C&C - email them your photos and your story and see what happens.
I have read cautions against using that thread before... don't remember where or when. Aurifil is $$ and hard to by in large quantities. I've been using some of the cotton thread sold at Connecting Threads and it's pretty good.
I hope you can rescue your lovely quilt in some way. Good luck!
What a shame...so sorry to hear your thread let you down. I'd get in touch with the company sounds like you have a dodgy batch especially if you have used it without incident before. Next, I would suggested you check every seam and where it has perished use a ladder stitch to repair. It will be invisible and secure...here's a link http://www.embroiderersguild.com/stitch/stitches/ladder.html and http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/04/how-to_close_a_seam_with_the_l.html
It will be time consuming, but at least it won't come apart and you can save the top even though you've started to quilt. Hope that helps.
This is really crummy. I didn't realized the thread was no longer covered with cotton either. I quit using this brand a few years ago because I had trouble with the inconsistancy in the thread construction and with the lint. So sorry this happened.
Inconsistency...sorry.
I have had that happen. It is so frustrating. I used fabric glue to hold it together because I was desperate. I blamed the break on the type of thread too. Since then, I have always used Gutermann Natural Cotton thread. Hope you found a solution!!
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