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By Emily Parker

If you’re like me, you don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about thread. Yes, we’ll stand at the thread display long enough to pick a decent color match, but by that point, we’ve got the fabric in hand and all we want to do is go home and start putting this thing together! Sewing with knits, however, requires at least a minute of thought since the wrong thread can give less than fabulous results.

Synthetic fiber thread is the sewing thread of choice for knit fabric, due to its strength. Synthetic fibers also offer stretch, a required benefit, since the fabric you’re sewing will need to stretch, too. You’ll want to choose a polyester or cotton-wrapped polyester thread but what type will depend on the fabric weight you’ll be using.

For medium to heavyweight fabrics, an all-purpose thread is perfect, if you’re working with lightweight knits, go for the extra-fine. For serging, you’ll likely use cones of thread, again polyester or cotton-wrapped. Also available on cones is a pretty cool alternative called wooly nylon thread which is kind of squishy (that’s the only way I can describe it) and makes wonderfully soft, comfy seams in medium weight to heavyweight knit fabrics.

Because these threads have stretch in them, you can’t go speed crazy when winding your bobbin. In fact, go a good bit slower than you would ordinarily, otherwise the thread may stretch as it winds and the outcome of that is puckered seams. If there’s one good way to disappoint a seamstress with a vision, some ugly puckered seams will do it (yeah, I see you over there trying to iron yours out…it’s no use, they’re still puckered).

As far as color matching your thread, you probably already know to go a shade darker than your fabric rather than lighter, unless you want to see the thread on your piece. On the other hand, if you don’t feel like buying 3,4 or 5 spools of a particular color (sergers do that to a gal), grey thread is an excellent all ’round color to use. A couple shades of grey in your sewing box make a wonderful go-to thread when you can’t be bothered with picking up an exact match or when the project doesn’t require everything to be “just so” (or as we say in the biz…just sew).

Emily Parker writes about sewing and other crafty, fun subjects. Visit her website for a great selection of sergers and more articles and tips on sewing.

Article Source: Emily Parker — Sewing Knits – Choose the Right Thread

Filed under: Knitting

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