Remember when I said I found lots of great things at Quilt Market?
This is one of them.
You know I love Sulky products! I use Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy on almost every single embroidery project.
So, of course, I had to pop by the Sulky booth to see what was new. 🙂
These were new.
Sulky makes thread for hand embroidery!
Now – in spite of my love for Sulky stabilizers and pattern transfer tools, I’ve never tried their thread. I thought it was for just machine embroidery and I don’t do that.
But these are for hand embroidery!
It doesn’t snag!
I took away a little sample and tried it. I tried it in the early summer when my hands were all gnarly from putting in my garden – a time when I rarely embroider because I hate snagging individual strands of thread on my gnarly hands.
I did not snag any threads!
A single strand of the Sulky 12 wt. is the same thickness as two strands of regular 6-stranded floss. I think that gave it just enough extra weight not to snag and pull individual strands loose. Plus it’s very smooth, which helped a lot.
Nice!
It’s very round and has a nice sheen
I told the folks at Sulky that I liked my sample. They offered to send me more so I could put it to a real test – a whole embroidery project.
Here’s why it took so long to get this review to you. After all – Quilt Market was back in May!
I figured as long as I was going to do some test stitching, I might as well design some new patterns. Small patterns that would let me test out a few different things – bigger stitching, tiny stitching, fill stitching, etc. Ooh – and I could make them free patterns!
So I stitched up some samples. And I loved it even more! It has a beautiful sheen to it. Not shiny – but sheeny (if that makes any sense).
And it’s rounder than regular 6-stranded floss. That makes it sit up nicely on the surface of the fabric, which I really like. It’s subtle, but I definitely noticed the difference in the finished work.
No more tangled mass of embroidery thread!
Ok – I know this may sound dorky – but love the little spools! It keeps everything so neat and tidy! And since there are no strands to separate I don’t have itty bitty bits of leftover floss that I need to store. And the color numbers are right on the spool so they don’t get separated from the floss (unlike the little bands that slide so easily off an almost-done skein of thread). And there are no kinks like you get from winding on bobbins or cards. It’s pure awesome.
Excellent price
The price for each spool is $1.69. That seems expensive at first – but each spool has 50 yards on it – as opposed to 8.7 yards in a skein. Even when you account for the fact that the thread skeins are thicker you’re still getting about twice as much thread on the spool as you get in a skein. And I found that I have much less waste working with the spools.
Lovely colors!
Right now they have 66 solids and 14 Blendables or variegated threads. Plenty to choose from – and they have plans to add more!
So I give the Sulky 12 wt. Cotton Petites Thread a big thumbs up! You can find it here.
All the embroidery patterns you see in this post are FREE! Click here to get the patterns for them – plus one more.
Update – a couple of years after writing this review I found another great use for this thread. It’s absolutely perfect for Big Stitch quilting! That link goes to a video showing how.
Here are links to all my posts about embroidery tools and supplies.
For Beginners
Specialty Fabrics
Threads
- 12 wt. Sulky Petites
- How I Store and Organize My Embroidery Thread
- Working with Glow in the Dark Thread
Stabilizers and Pattern Transfer Tools
- Why the Right Stabilizer Is Like a Good Bra
- Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy
- What Product to Use When (Freezer Paper, Fusible Adhesive, and Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy)
Return to the Learn to Embroider main Table of Contents.
Move on to the posts about working with patterns.
Wow! Great review!! Thank you for telling us all about the Sulky threads. Going to try them for sure!
Where do you buy your Sulky Cotton Petites?
A lot of independent quilt shops carry them. I also found the full range online at Red Rock Threads http://www.redrockthreads.com/sulky-thread/sulky-petites.asp and Uncommon Thread http://www.uncommonthread.com/category-s/314.htm.
Embroidery thread on a spool – that’s genius! I do think it’s a little expensive, but the ease of use and the fact that you’re left with less “snippets” is a great plus – and storage is way easier 🙂
Thanks for the patterns Wendy, they are super cute!
Love the quilts created by people who love to sew, very nice.
Thank you for the review. I love hand embroidery and look forward to trying these Sulky threads.
I hope you like them!
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