Tuesday 25 November 2008

What's in a Name or Fab Fibres



Quilters love cotton. It's our favourite fibre! But all cottons are not equal.

Currently, China, the US, India, Pakistan and Brazil are the world leaders in cotton production. But in terms of quality nothing comes close to Egyptian cotton. Egypt is renowned for producing long fibres of uniform length, which are stronger, finer and have greater elasticity than any other fibre.The long staple or long fiber of Egyptian-grown cotton means that there is more continuous fiber to use when creating threads or yarns.

The King Tut range from Superior Threads is extra-long staple Egyptian cotton. Extra-long staple means that the fibres are long and strong resulting in a minimum of lint. These long fibres create a resilient thread that won't snap or break under pressure. Because they've begun with the finest fibres, Superior Threads don't need to add nasty chemical coating to the thread to make it less linty or stronger. This is a real plus for machine quilters. Strong, low lint thread means a cleaner sewing machine and less down time for us. This gives machine quilters more time for doing what we love best.

By the way, mind the label. Some threads claim to be Egyptian cotton but they're grown in Brazil. The extra-long staple Egyptian cotton in the King Tut range really does come from Egypt. Now all those funny names like Pyramids, Sands of Time, Oasis and Pharaoh's Treasure begin to make sense.

1 comment:

Trudi said...

Many quilters complain about lint in their machine, it's true that some threads produce more lint than others, but it also depends on both the fabric and wadding you are using at the time too. I tend to just accept that lint is a fact of life and my Juki lets me know in its own way that it is ready for a clean because its beoming clogged with lint. A quick clean does the job so I can get right back to the quilting on the frame. They say don't sweat the small stuff, and it's true - don't sweat the lint issue either.