Originally Posted by
charlottequilts
I was told Very Emphatically by a shop owner that all cotton thread should be thrown out after 3 years.
If that were true, how could there be any old quilts or old clothes?
Many of us have been through the “polyester cuts through cotton fabric” era. Is the 3-year “rule” for cotton now the rationale for using poly thread?
I would not use old thread I had not stored, myself, but beyond that, these sweeping generalizations are very irritating.
People seem to have a habit of, and be 100% ok with, repeating anything they are told. Critical thinking is a lost art. Asking yourself “who is giving me this information and do they have their own interests or biases” and “does that information match my observations/experience” are some simple checks almost no one does.
In the case of the shopkeeper, I wonder if they were confidently repeating what their thread vendor had told them. It’s possible their product has a discernible drop in tensile strength at about 3 years old, but more likely they just want to sell more thread. It’s a mechanical not a chemical property, it should decline in strength somewhat steadily over time. Or, what if the vendor told the shopkeeper they shouldn’t be selling thread that’s more than 3 years old, to reduce the chance of unhappy customers with thread breakage? I’d believe that too! However a hard shelf life on cotton thread…doesn’t pass my sniff test either.
I bought a huge bucket of old thread at goodwill about 5 years ago. It was a mix of cottons, polys, and rayons. This was a sewers stash, probably someone who passed or gave up sewing. Some are very old- bobbing said West Germany lol. The clearly super old have been used for basting or hand sewing projects that are no-wash, like Christmas ornaments. All the others get used and if they demonstrate unusual breakage I move them to the hand sewing crafts pile or if quite bad I toss them.
I’m not making a legacy quilt for generations. I’m trying to use what’s at hand and prevent landfilling so I don’t have an issue using older thread if it’s giving me every indication it’s doing it’s job.