Will poly thread eventually cut cotton cloth when used in piecing?
 

Will poly thread eventually cut cotton cloth when used in piecing? Or is this a fable?

What is the professional standard for thread choice? What are best practices? (Yes, I know I can do whatever I want, but I want to make the best choice for heirloom work)

Logically, it seems to me that if poly eventually cuts into cotton when used for piecing, the same thing will happen when used for machine quilting! In machine quilting there is a lot more stress on the thread because it is pulling together two layers of fabric and the batting, whereas in piecing it's sitting nicely in a fold and pressed together by the machine quilting.

Thank you

No. At least not with most commonly available threads today. Check out the thread tutorials at Superior Threads online. They have some videos on Youtube also. In one of them, they demonstrate how easily poly thread breaks.

There may have been a problem using polyester thread with cotton in the past, but it certainly doesn't seem to be a problem these days.

It is a fable

I've used poly blends for ages and never noticed any trouble. Sounds like a quilt police story!

Poly got a bad rap when it was first sold to sewers as it was too strong for the weaker fabrics many were using for quilts then. The poly thread made now is thinner and made for the newer machines.

It's a myth. I have quilts made in 1981 with poly thread, pieced and quilted, they've been washed and used a great deal. Not a thread broken or cut into any fabric.

Nylon will cut the fabric but not poly. See superiorthreads.com website.
Rita

I've used the 'older' cotton covered polyester thread by Coats & Clark for years. The quilts that I made from them - that have had hard use and many washings - show no stress whatsoever at the seam lines.

I was always taught to match the thread to the fabric - that is, if you're sewing on cotton fabric, use cotton thread, or polyester on polyester. But I've used polyester thread when piecing with cotton fabric, and I've never had a problem. The quilts seem to hold up fine. I do, however, have problems when I have different threads in the needle and the bobbin. My machine doesn't seem to like that at all...

I use only poly thread for all sewing, quilting & embroidery projects. I use to use cotton, but it made such a mess of lint in the machine. I love using poly!!!!