This fall, you will be seeing lots of thicker threads – yarn-like in appearance – in retail stores. On my current trip East, I have seen tons of this decorating method on everything from sweatshirts to bags and even on the back of woven menswear shirts.    

Industry supplier Madieria offers Burmilana, YLI has Monet and Gunold has Filaine. In working with Filaine, I learned a lot about the wonderful aspects of this thread.

First, it works great with your redwork design library. You can enlarge the designs and still get great bold looks.                                                                                                                                        

To use it, stitch with needle sizes from 80 to 100. To thread it in a needle smaller than a 100, I tied it on to the smaller thread that is still through the needle and pull it through. You may also want to keep some beeswax on hand to smooth the threading end of this fuzzy thread.

Slow the stitching speed slightly and you may want to turn off trimmers if you machine is equipped with trimmers.  The trimmers will trim, but you could experience thread pull-outs at trims with this thread type.

You can also vary your densities from a hand-embroidered look to a lush, full coverage style. Using a redwork design and keyboard lettering, I did a full 7-1/2” design with fewer than 5,000 stitches!

Have fun, And join in this stitch saving trend.