All About Embroidery Thread Considerations

From spool fool to thread cred

Like palette to painter, embroidery thread colors the craft. But, thoughts on threads reach far beyond shade considerations. We asked those with embroidery threadentials to string Printwear along in a journey though all things thread.

Threading the trends
A&E Robison-Anton’s Mark Hatton mentions two interesting embroidery movements. “One is a focus on detailed embroidery, actually trying to make designs much more intricate than they were in the past. The variety of lightweight or thinner threads on the market are enabling people to do that,” he says, adding that this side is more inclined toward corporate embellishment purposes. “On the decorative side, we’ve seen the opposite—people moving to heavier embroidery threads or using non-traditional embroidery threads for multidimensional motifs with more definition.”

Employing materials such as cotton to create a distressed look, this trend is happening with the company’s smaller embroidery shops doing school work. “Schools are starting to get a little bit more cutting edge,” Hatton reports. “It’s not just embroidering the name and logo anymore, it’s embroidering the school’s name in a funky design using spun polyesters and cottons and variegated yarns.”

Over the last year, popularity picked up for glow-in-the-dark embroidery threads. (Image courtesy A&E Robison-Anton)

Over the last year, popularity picked up for glow-in-the-dark embroidery threads.

Over the course of the last year, Hatton has also observed popularity pick up for glow-in-the-dark embroidery threads. “It’s always kind of been there as a novelty, but we’re actually starting to see people order complete color lines, whereas before they may buy one or two spools. Now they want to have the capability to embroider, whether it’s blue, green, yellow or orange glow-in-the-dark.” In particular, he names stores that specialize in selling collage and major league ball caps in malls and airports as a market for this luminous option, offering fans a chance to light up their loyalty when the sun goes down at the ballgame. Chris Meyers, Fil-Tec Inc. also mentions children’s Halloween costumes and joggers’ outfits as good applications for glow-in-the-dark.

On the topic of fresh threads, Mike Butler with Amann USA brings up a new line that’s special dyed particularly for the automotive industry, both for the purpose of embellishing car interiors and stitching their components—steering wheels, break boots, seats, etc.—together. Madeira’s Colleen Hartigan names a matte finish thread as an exciting embroidery development of late. Designed to be colorfast when exposed to extreme amounts of sunlight, said thread is recommended for items such as patio cushions, boat covers, umbrellas, dog collars, horse blankets and motorcycle jacket backs, she reports. “It has also been recognized by embroiderers for use in shading when combined with the luster of rayon or the shine of polyester threads.” Read more...

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