When you sew a lot, you get to know your threads pretty well.

I do a lot of mending on my clothes, probably more than I should. I routinely keep mending clothes long after they’ve attained the status of rags. More than once my mother has said she will pay me to just buy a new shirt, but hey, you really can’t replace a favorite, so I keep on mending.

In my long mending history I have used all kinds of threads and found that some work better than others. Waxed quilting thread (aside from being the greatest innovation in quilting since the needle!) is actually quite useful for mending as it never twists up like unwaxed thread. It can be a little stiff to work with when trying to mend holes, however, so it’s best used on bigger rips.

Recently I stumbled onto the wonderful world of overlock thread. What really caught my attention was the fact that a spool of overlock thread cost the same as a spool of regular thread, yet was about 3 times as big as a spool of regular thread. I took one home and decided to try it.

I quickly realized that overlock thread is definitely thinner than all-purpose thread, so using it on a sewing machine would be out of the question (not to mention the fact that it would be very difficult to fit the huge spool on the machine spikes). Mending, however, is a different story.

Whereas a sewing machine only sews single threaded (at least in the case of the bobbin), when I’m mending, I always bend the thread in the middle and sew with the two layers. Therefore the thinner overlock thread is plenty thick enough when doubled up. In short, if you mend by hand and use the double thickness method, you can get three times the thread for your mending buck by using overlock thread. Just don’t use it on a regular sewing machine, or you may find your project literally “bursting at the seams.”

By Amber Reifsteck, The Woodland Elf

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