Thursday 30 July 2009

Embroidery Threads

I have been having battles with my beloved embroidery machine. I have a Janome Memory Craft 350E that I just love, but lately we have been having challenges. It is not the needle or the fact that it sits in a layer of dust and offcuts, but rather I have been using inferior embroidery threads.

One piece of advice that they gave me when I purchased my baby last year was to use good quality threads ... always. But sometimes that is not possible and a few weeks back when I desperately needed white thread to do some embroidery for my lovely friend Jennie, my only option was buying a three pack of QA 100% polyester Embroidery Thread. I was in Spotlight and as per usual they had run out of the Birch Viscose Rayon Embroidery Thread that I usually buy and the QA value pack promised "value".


The culpret ... crappy product, guilty as charged.

The first lot of embroidery went well, only two breakages .... then the next job was worse, 3 or 4 breakages .... then last night I tried to make some labels and it kept on breaking every 30 seconds.. grr. When the polyester thread breaks it goes all fuzzy and you have to carefully trim it away, take the machine back 30 or so stitches, re-thread and try again. Sometimes I can get away with it, but I don't like my embroidery looking crappy ...

The job that I was doing last night was my labels. Yes I am crazy for doing my labels ... but I like the effect that I get with the viscose rayon on the cotton heading tape.


My baby in action, heading tape is thick enough to go in the hoop without interfacing.

The only thing stopping me from being more productive last night was my labels. Consequently I changed my construction method on my Lunch Bags to accommodate my lack of labels.


The dodgy labels, the third from the bottom is with Silco Thread...
which ended up being too thick.


Running out of time before heading off to work at lunchtime, I rang around the spotlight stores to find my Birch thread, South Melbourne Spotlight had it. So I rang my hubby who works in Port Melbourne to pick them up. I have already done about 10 labels since I have gotten home - yeah!Align Center

My only decision now is what do I do with the QA threads? I am tempted to take them back to Spotlight and let them know that they are selling crappy products. Or do I send them back to QA with a nice letter letting them know that their product did not live upto the "value" standard I had hoped for?

2 comments:

gina Butler said...

I would say to contact the thread mfr. QA. The sales staff at the store would probably not be much help - although they may simply refund your money.

Nikki said...

If you can find the time, send them back to the manufacturer. They need to know. If you go back to Spotlight, there is a huge chance of you leaving feeling more frustrated.. it's not worth the risk. Consider your sanity!!