Polyester Core-Spun Thread Source

[Chris Wright]

Can anyone suggest a source for polyester core-spun thread?

-Chris

[David Scheidt]

Where?

If you're near somewhere with a garment industry (which includes more US cities than you might think) there will be an industrial thread supplier. Many specialist quilt shops sell A&E perma core, which is a perfectly suitable thread for most gear making tasks. (Quilters like it because it breaks less when used in long arm quilting machines.) They're likely to have either tex 40 or tex 30 thread, either of which will work for most gear.

If you want to buy on line, there are a number of quilt suppliers who sell the permacore, and a smaller number of industrial suppliers who are willing to sell small quantities.

[Matthew Pullan]

Rasant is a popular core spun polyester thread. Rasant 75 is available from extremtextil in Germany:

http://www.extremtextil.de/catalog/Sewing-Accessories/Threads:::38_40.html?XTCsid=6e17d46e226c9b94ec6caee805f9f845

If you want rasant 120 you will have to go to fadenversand (now called Neocreo), also in Germany:

http://www.neocreo.com/Naehen/Garne/Rasant-No-120-1000m.html

I think the shipping will be pretty high though. It costs me enough just to ship to Austria. Rasant 120 has been available on Ebay, from an Australian seller, shipping to the USA may be better from them, assuming they are still offering rasant. 120 is for quilts and non load bearing seams on tents, 75 or below for tie outs (hopefully saving you a job here Roger;)). Incidentally, rasant is German for rapid, thus rasant is intended for industrial high speed sewing. If you go into your local store and ask for it they will probably tell you it is totally unsuitable: ignore them.
Matt

[David Scheidt]

Rasant is a popular choice in Europe. Amman has no distribution of their industrial threads in the US. There are reasons for that. One is that there are domestic choices that are just as good, and in some senses better. No one sees much point in paying a premium for a product that doesn't have any performance advantage, and has substantial disadvantages. For instance, A&E can provide the permacore I mentioned above in 500 colors, from stock. With a bit of lead time, they can provide it in 10,000 colors, or your own custom color. Rasant is suplied in about 120 colors.

There are other core spun threads, either cotton covered (rasant is cotton covered; a&e d-core) or polyester covered (A&E permacore). One you can buy in any fabric store in the US is Coats & Clark dual duty XP. The fine is about t-24, which is metric ticket 120. There are others, talk to a thread merchant.

[Matthew Pullan]

I may be mistaken, but I think it is possible to order rasant direct from Amman, I don't know the minimum order. If it's large quantities you want then the shipping may be more favourable. The last I heard Amman had a shop on their website. Colours are great for quilts and clothes, but black is more UV stable if you are using cotton covered thread for a tent. Rasant is also available in a hydrophobic variety when ordered in bulk.
Matt

[Roger Caffin]

You can even buy Rasant over the web from Australia! Yes, I like it.

Coats & Clark … the stories I have heard were not good.

Cheers

[J C]

Really unusual that a good MYOG material is available here in Aus and not in the US, but yes, Rasant is easy to get here! http://www.sewingselections.com.au/ has 25, 75 and 120, as do many others.

[Sam Farrington]

Please tell those of us in the dark what is meant by 'core-spun.'

Rasant may have become something of a Holy Grail what with Roger's success with it.
No doubt, but as David S noted, there are other excellent threads readily available in the US. Amann has an outlet in the Denver area; but I found them very unreliable sellng Rasant, and stopped wasting time with them. They also make a thread called Isacord. Don't know if it is the same as the Isacord widely sold in the US by Ackerman. It is a good outdoor thread if it is not too heavy for your machine.

As was mentioned there is the Coats XP, widely available in the US, as well as a slightly heavier Coats "Outdoor" thread.

And there is another German thread, Metler Metrosene Plus, sold in sewing shops in the US (polyester covered polyester core) that has worked well for me with tents, but may not be heavy enough for some on packs.

With lighter threads on packs, I just double sew each line of stitching, and all the seams have held up very well.

The Coats poly/poly threads intended for general use are not very strong, and I would not use them for gear. Ditto, with the Gutermann. Just try breaking some of the much touted threads. I was surprised at how easily some of the threads broke.

The A&E permacore mentioned by David S sounds very much worth trying, and I will see if I can find a good source for home sewers in the US.

[David Scheidt]

Corespun threads consist of a continuous filament core (heat or chemically set polyester, for the threads under discussion here) which has staple (meaning shortish pieces of small diamter fiber, think the stuff a cotton ball is made of) fibers spun around it. Two or more of those pieces are then spun together to make the actual thread. The outer coating can be cotton or polyester. Cotton has the advantage of being more heat resistant, so it works better in high speed machines and processes. Polyester is cheaper, more chemical resistant, and tends to have fade resistant colors. The advantage of a core spun thread over a regular spun thread is that the core provides higher strength, better abrasion resistance. the advantage over a monofiliment thread (think, say, fishing line) is that it behaves more like a regular thread, it feels better, and it dyes better.

A&E's permacore, which is a poly covered polyester thread, is available from lots quilt supply places, because long arm quilters are tough on thread. These people http://www.longarmsupplies.net/quilterseditionpermacore.aspx sell both Tex 30 and Tex 40 permacore; the T-30 comes in reasonable sized put ups that make sense for hobbyist use. (I've not used them.) If you live in or near city that has garment industry (and there's more of that in the US than you might think), there's very likely someone who can provide suitable thread. There really are lots of choices for thread.

[Roger Caffin]

> Please tell those of us in the dark what is meant by 'core-spun.'
A thread often consists of many parallel fibres all twisted together. Been that way for the last few thousand years.

When the fibres are cotton the thread is weak, and UV degrades as well. Some quilt makers love the stuff though. Cheap.

When the fibres are all polyester and very, very long (essentially infinitely long), you have a much stronger thread, but one with some disadvantages.
* The surface is very smooth, so finishing off a line of sewing takes a bit more work if you don't want the sewing to come undone.
* The thread can develop kinks if it has a full machine twist, so running it through a machine can be tricky at first. (A cheap almost untwisted version exists for use on sergers, but it is totally unsuited to ordinary sewing. Avoid it.)
* When sewing at high speed through synthetic fabric the needle can get hot. With the thread whizzing backwards and forwards through the needle, the eye can get even hotter. Now stop the sewing, and see if the thread melts slightly where it touches the needle. It can. Oops!

You can randomly blend cotton with polyester to get good dye uptake, but that is cheap stuff. Instead, start with a core of polyester fibres, and add a layer of continuous polyester filaments and cotton fibres around the outside. You end up with a strong polyester core with a cotton sheath. When this runs through the needle the cotton reduces the friction so the heating is less, AND the cotton protects the polyester core of the thread from melting when the needle gets hot. This is core-spun poly-cotton. Very widely used industrially.

Coates thread
I read a comment somewhere that 'Friends don't let friends use Coates'. It may be OK for amateur quilt enthusiasts.

Gutermann
A pretty 'average' consumer thread, made to a price.

Metler Metrosene Plus
Straight polyester thread, no cotton. Slow speed.

Others
Sorry, I don't know them.

Cheers

[Sam Farrington]

David, thanks for the info about the A&E Permacore. Must look into it.

Roger, I have to admit that even sewing at a snail's pace, I've had much less snagging and lock-ups with DMC cotton covered poly (no longer sold) and Mettler than with Coats. Stopped using Coats long ago for this reason, but still try some of the new offerngs on occasion, like the Coats XP.

[Javan Dempsey]

Gutterman has a continuous filament 100% poly thread that's quite good FWIW, only available in large cones however, at least when I was looking.

It's the "Tera" line. I've used the Tera 80, which is Tex 35. It's a lot stronger and abrasion than the equivalent "Mara" threads, although for quilts, I didn't like how pronounced the stitch work appeared, so I didn't continue using it for that, I do however use it for just about everything else that I don't use Tex 70 Bonded Nylon for.

[Green Thumb]

FWIW, mostly geared towards quilting and the like, my wife did a blog post last year about various thread under magnification. I did the scope work for her at my lab.

http://www.owensolivia.blogspot.com/2012/10/your-sewing-thread-under-microscope.html

[Marc Penansky]

Judy here from LightHeart Gear-
with Gueterman thread, make sure the label says made in Germany. Some of it (or at least in the past) was made in Mexico and of much more inferior quality. They also in the last few years came out with the Guterman 'Mara" thread which is much better than previously.

Another thing about (industrial) thread is that it can come 'bonded' or 'soft' Bonded thread will sew at higher speeds better, it is less linty, it has a sheen to it and tends to 'stand out' it has a coating on it and looks more like one solid fiber rather than several smaller threads twisted together.It's kind of wiry and easy to pull out when you goof. Soft thread on the other hand is a little fuzzier, fades into the fabric better, doesnt' pull out as easily, it is very linty (you have to clean your machine more often). A good place to get thread is http://www.banaschs.com/catalog_page.htm Also, many dry cleaning supply places will have a good selection of thread http://search.sailrite.com/category/thread-uv-treated-teflon-tenara-outdoor-nylon-polyester-threads

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