linen thread

[willie wobble]

kass, i've been following your threads here and have made 4 shirts ,3 cotton ,1 linen from your patterns but maybe i missed somthing, when making a linen shirt or shift wouldn't you also use linen thread? i'm finding it difficult to find linen thread and then what size thread ?waxed or unwaxed the company that carrys linen materal doesn't handle thread. did i missthat part? thanks, willie the shirt maker

[michaelsbagley]

kass, i've been following your threads here and have made 4 shirts ,3 cotton ,1 linen from your patterns but maybe i missed somthing, when making a linen shirt or shift wouldn't you also use linen thread? i'm finding it difficult to find linen thread and then what size thread ?waxed or unwaxed the company that carrys linen materal doesn't handle thread. did i miss that part? thanks, willie the shirt maker

Well I'm not Kass...

But you are correct, ideally for a linen shirt, you would want to use linen thread. And NOT the waxed stuff (the waxed stuff is more for tentage or other heavier duty uses in my opinion).

While not local to you (sorry I took the liberty of checking your profile to see where you are), there are two places that sell decent linen thread that do mail order I can refer you to,

Ursala's Alcove in Pennsilvania, have some great "Normandy Linen" thread I have been using lately. (Second item from the bottom on the link)

or

Smoke and Fire have some good garment weight thread that I have used in the past. I am sure enough searching will find you a few resources closer to home, but these are here if you want them.

[CrazyCholeBlack]

Well, I'm not Kass either (but I'd like to be, someday). Yes linen thread is nice on linen, not mandatory though. I've used silk on linen with good results. You can also use linen thread when sewing wool for when silk isn't heavy enough.

Before buying you have to know a few things about linen thread. There are two types, plied and unplied. You want piled, which means it has 2 or 3 separate strands of linen spun and then twisted together. It's more durable and less likely to pull apart while you are sewing (trust me it sucks when it happens!) second, it helps to understand how linen thread is classified. Piled linen thread is marked with a designation, say 80/3. the first number is the thickness of the thread; the higher the number the finer the thread, the 2nd number how may strands are twisted together. 80/3 is a fairly fine thread good for machine sewing and general hand sewing but not heavy enough for things like button holes or visible topstitching (50/3 is good for that)

anyway, now that you know what your looking for in linen thread, where do you find the stuff?

Wm. Booth Draper

Hedgehog Handworks