Cotton vs. Polyester thread and shrinkage
 

Hi

I had a question whether to use cotton or polyester for quilting/piecing. I know there is another thread talking about this but my question is more specific...

I am a beginner and I am going to use a jelly roll for the first time. Now I read that the jelly rolls (specifically from Kauffman) shrink a lot but that is preferable not to pre-wash them because of the potential distortion of the grain and the amount of fraying it can happen. Also because it’s crispier without pre-wash and that makes cutting easier...

anywho, this got me thinking: polyester does not shrink, cotton shrinks. With this in mind, wouldn’t it be best to quilt in this case (without pre-washing fabric) with a cotton thread of weight 40? Then when the shrinkage occurs it would not pucker as much?

Excuses for my long question but this is something I am unable to find a clear answer on... 😅

thank you

I use a 50 wt. polyester most of the time ant have great results.

I have used both cotton and polyester thread and had good results with both. I think as long as you use good quality thread your project will turn out fine. A quilt is only as good as it's thread so use good thread.

i don't think cotton thread shrinks as much as cotton fabrics and batting do.
i won't use poly to piece but it's a purely personal preference.
(kinda like some people will never step on a crack or walk under a ladder. lol)

I've used all kinds of threads. I don't use things like Isacord for piecing quilts but have used it for piecing other things. So far nothing has fallen apart or broken.

sounds good! I have been using that for everything but have been pre-washing all my fabrics...

do you pre-wash your fabrics and then use polyester? Or you don’t pre-wash and use polyester and you don’t see puckering?

I read that poly being synthetic can melt with the iron while piecing and I had that issue...

even if cotton thread won’t shrink as much, poly doesn’t shrink at all so I was wondering if you don’t pre-wash (like a jelly roll is best not to do that) the moment you are done will it make it all wonky because the fabric did shrink but the thread didn’t ...

I used to use Aurifil cotton thread, but now I only use polyester thread - either Superior So FIne #50 or Connecting Threads Essential Pro poly. I usually pre-wash yardage, but never pre-wash pre-cuts.

I've never had a problem with thread shrinking or causing problems, with any of those thread/fabric combos. Let me assure you that it really is a non-issue. The only thing I will say is that no matter what brand you use, it's important to use a good quality thread because "bargain" thread can cause more headaches than it's worth.

I've also never had a problem with the poly threads I mentioned melting with a hot iron, even one set on the highest setting. Not saying it could never happen, just that it's never happened to me with those particular threads.

I have experienced poly threads melting. The iron had been dropped a few times, and I didn't realize that the heat setting had gotten broken so it was full heat all the time (the iron never stopped heating - it got really hot!). Not only did I melt thread, I had serious shrinkage from poly cotton fabric too. The iron got so hot it eventually melted through the cord at the base and shorted out, so I know it was getting way hotter than it was suppose to ever get.

During the malfunction time, it really put a great crease in cotton fabric with very little effort.

Yikes! That's scary! https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/eek.png

You want to see scary?

https://www.quiltingboard.com/attach...1&d=1595583281

Holy cow, that's really scary! And the reason I never leave my irons plugged in.

I hope there was no damage other than the iron.

Wow!!! Scary indeed!!! Do you know what caused that?

Patrice...inquiring minds want to know too.

Yikes! At first glance I thought it was a skull !!!!

Wow! When you say scary you really know what you are talking about.
When I think of all of the times I have forgotten my iron and found it blinking in the
morning. ! I will definitely work out a system so that never happens again.

i never have figured out what caused that to happen.
the light also plugged into that power strip was fine.

i consider myself very lucky that it never burst into flames.
just melted and filled my sewing space with smelly fumes.

guess who tries really hard now to remember to unplug irons when not in use. https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/hug.gif

Were you there when it melted?

Or did you follow the fumes?

How did you get it out of the sewing room on a timely basis?

Disappointment
 

You may not get equal shrinkage on both fabric and thread.
I just finished a quilt using preshrunk cotton, used quality 60 and 80 wt. cotton threads to piece. I decided to wash it in cold water. Dried on low heat. Now I have rumpled seams. I'm sick that this happened. I want to iron it but fear breaking threads. Interesting thing, I ironed seams while assembling. Why wouldn't the thread shrink then? And can I iron it without breaking thread?
I think from now on I'll use polyester thread to piece.

I'm posting this mainly from a garment construction view but I do carry it into my quilting. All fibers should be of the same content, cotton fabric, cotton thread, cotton batting, cotton backing, cotton quiting. While the majority don't believe this reigns true and I argued the point with Rickey Timms. His response was "do you want all your beautiful quilting to disintegrate". My argument was, no, however what good is all that beautiful quilting if all the cotton has worn away from abrasion of polyesther thread. I piece with cotton and quilt with cotton, UNLESS I can't find what I need, then I go to rayon as it's also considered a natural fiber, then if all else fails for a small area I would consider trilobal poly. If I've spent months piecing, laying out, layering the sandwich and quilting if It's all going to fall apart it will do so at the same rate. As far as shrinkage, today's cotton doesn't shrink at the rate our mother's and grandmother's did. We have high quality long fiber cottons that have been mercerized. I'd not hesitate to stitch 2.5" strips with cotton thread, use my cotton batting, and backing and quilt with my cotton thread. I doubt it's going to wrinkle that much. Besides, IMHO it's the wrinkling and softness of a washed quilt that gives it the charm and the feel of sleeping at grandma's house. Only my opinion it may only be worth a grain of salt to some though but worth a thought.

I use 100% cotton thread for piecing, and use polyester for machine quilting (top & bottom threads). Not sure of the supportive data :) but that was recommendations from a couple of quilt shop classes I attended.

You can use either but if you are doing anything that will be embroidered use a good poly like so fine

I have two "couch quilts" that are over twenty years old - they have been used so much that the bias binding is severely frayed.
I used the cotton covered polyester Dual Duty for the piecing and quilting. I do not see one tiny bit of shredding on any of the seams not has any of the pieces come unstitched or the fabric "worn" or "shredded" at the seam lines.

One has a polyester batting and the other has Warm and Natural batting.

I have measured hundreds (really!!!!) of pieces of fabric before and after washing. I do not know what the shrinkage rate was 50 years ago, because I only started measuring about 20 years ago. I would guess that less than 2% of the pieces that I measured had no shrinkage. Most of them shrank more in one direction than another.

I have had a Michael Miller black (from more than one bolt) shrink more than 2 inches in width. So "good brand" is no guarantee of no shrinkage. I also had a roc-lon tea colored muslin - that the end label siad "pre-shrunk" shrink drastically.

So - that is my experience and observations.

Cotton thread is mercerized, a process that makes it smoother, stronger, less linty and pre-shrinks it. Still, my preference is Glide poly thread. It has all of the above characteristics and is finer than most cottons.

Pre-washing is one of those things I don't like to do so it depends a lot on the fabrics and what is being done with them. I always pre-wash fabrics used in swaps. That is one of the rules here. When I am doing things for myself I only pre-wash darker fabrics that I feel might run like reds or dark blues. I will also prewash fabrics that have a heavier than usual amount of sizing. All others are at how I "feel" the fabrics are responding to touch. I don't prewash layer cakes as an example or packages of pre-cuts. It is up to you for the most part. You pattern may say to prewash, then you might want to consider it.
Puckering is something I rarely see. I wash all my quilts after finishing them because I glue baste my quilts. The small amount of puckering I see gives the quilt the perfect look of a much loved quilt. But I have to tell you puckering is far and little between.