Naturally dyed heavyweight thread is designed for decorative hand-stitching. It’s used in industry for machine sewing given its superior quality and high performance. The 105 weight thread is cotton wrapped around a polyester core, so it takes the dye like cotton, but is strong like polyester, the perfect combo for tough stitching situations. After dyeing it has a mottled appearance with little sparkles of white that show through. It’s strong enough to mend your jeans but fine enough to stitch onto lightweight sweaters as pictured.

I discovered it after using it to tie off my Arashi Shibori (pole-wrap) dye projects. I tried it because it was strong but then noticed the beautiful, naturally occurring color variations created by the dyeing process. I shared it with my students in mending and stitching classes and have started putting it up in skeins to share. It works great when mending denim. The colors coordinate beautifully and it’s strong enough to stitch through heavy jeans and holds up to rough wear.

14 yard skein

Colors vary according to the dipping process. No two will ever be exactly alike, sometimes they’re dark, sometimes they’re light, but they always work well together.

Colors:

Natural Indigo is dyed in my fermentation indigo vat, dipped and rinsed repeatedly until it reaches the desired shade.

Denim is a proprietary blend of fiber reactive dyes. It’s very similar to Natural Indigo but is a bit less green in tone. It works well when mending denim.