In honor of Aurifil USA’s 10th Anniversary (and of National Sewing Month) we are pleased to introduce a brand new brochure, chock full of helpful thread info accompanied by some stunning thread eye candy. <3 We thought the best way to present it, in all of its lovely glory, would be to launch a mini series, dedicated to a bit of thread education. So, settle in and turn your attention to our Creative Technical Creative Specialist, Kristi, for All About Aurifil!
Welcome to All About Aurifil! This is a series dedicated to teaching you about the different threads we offer and how best to use them.
One of the most common things that we hear at the various trade and consumer shows we attend is: “I thought Aurifil was on an orange spool!” Well, it is. But it’s also on red, grey, green, and wooden spools. And that’s just for our Cotton threads! Today we are going to talk about the thread that comes on both the red and the grey spools: 12wt & 28wt.
First, let’s get a little background on the thread in general. Aurifil is 100% Egyptian Cotton, grown in the Mako region of Egypt on the river Nile. When considering the quality of cotton, we can make the comparison to that of wine; different geographic areas offer different attributes to the raw material. Aurifil thread is “long staple”, which refers to the length of the fibers in the raw cotton boll. The length of the fibers determines the quality of the cotton.
Although the cotton is grown in Egypt, the thread itself is manufactured in our warehouse in Milano, Italy. In Italy, it will undergo 15 steps before being transformed into a spool of thread for you to use. We manufacture and produce four types of thread: wool/acrylic blend, polyester, monofilament, and six different weights of cotton. Let’s learn a little more about two of our lesser known weights now.
12wt
Our 12wt thread comes in all 270 colours, on a red spool. It is the heaviest weight thread that we offer and is perfect for hand applique, hand embroidery, hand quilting, cross stitch, embellishment, handmade lace, machine applique, blanket stitch, machine embroidery (especially for designs that use a longer stitch length), machine art quilting, Sashiko, redwork, lower looper serging, and longarm quilting. When using 12wt thread by machine, we recommend using a much thinner thread in the bobbin, like our 40wt. Your machine, seam ripper and sanity will thank you!
It is important to use the proper needle size with the thread weight you are using. In this case, it is best to use 100/16 or 90/14 Topstitch needle. Longarmers will want to use a 4.5 needle and 28wt in the bobbin and should quilt slowly, using a longer stitch and silicone conditioner where necessary.
12wt comes on three different sized spools: Large, Small and Cone. Our large spool holds 356 yards (or 325 meters), the small spool holds 54 yards (or 50 meters) and the cone has 1,914 yards (or 1,750 meters).
28wt
Our 28wt thread comes in all 270 colours, on a grey spool. It is the second heaviest weight thread that we offer and is perfect for double strand cross stitch, blanket stitch, hand applique, hand piecing, hand quilting, bobbin and machine lace, machine quilting, longarm quilting, machine embroidery and lower looper serging.
It is best to use a 90/14 Topstitch, Quilting or Denim needle when using this thread by machine. You should use either 40wt or 50wt in the bobbin for best results. Longarm quilters should use a size 4.0 needle and 40wt in the bobbin, and go a little slower than normal-especially when creating curves.
28wt comes in four spool or skein sizes: small, large, cone, and skein. A small spool of this weight has 109 yards (100 meters), a large spool has 820 yards (750 meters), a cone has 3,609 yards (3300 meters) and a skein has 87 yards (80 meters).
Some of our favorite designers have included these weights in their collections including Anna Maria Horner, Victoria Findley Wolfe, Sarah Fielke, Christopher Thompson, Carolyn Friedlander, Karen Miller, Mister Domestic, Kaye England, Annie Smith, and Sarah Maxwell.
Join us next week to learn more about indanthren colours and reactive colours and to talk about everyone’s favorite 40wt and 50wt threads!
Happy Sewing!
– Kristi
This is great information. Is it possible to get a hard copy of the brochure to have for reference?
We’ve just received printed copies to our HQ in Italy. We’ll have news of how to get your own printed copy soon! Keep an eye our for our second installment this coming Sunday. We’ll post news there:). Thank you!!
This is terrific. Information. Is it possible to get a hard copy of the brochure to keep in my sewing room for reference?
Sent from my iPad
Thank you,very informative, and love, love, love the threads! Use the all the time!
Thank you for your support — we’re so happy to hear that you love the threads:)
My small business is sewing custom bags and wallets. I use 12wt cotton almost exclusively for construction, in both the top and in the bobbin. The seams are extremely strong, even when using leather and faux leathers, and the topstitching is lustrous and distinct. Proud to write that I have every color, and there has not yet been a project that didn’t have the perfect match or contrast. Thank you so much for a beautiful product that performs as good or better than it looks!
Thank you so much, Diane! We’re thrilled to hear that the 12wt works so well and that the color range has been beneficial for you:). Thank you for your support!!
Beautiful presentation. I just bought 12 wt. to try!
Thanks Sally! We’d love to hear what you think:)
This was great information! Thank you for including what thread to use in the bobbin and suggesting needles. ♡♡ I love love my Aurifil thread and love experimenting, i have had a lot of seam ripping going on though. Lol
So glad that you found the info helpful!! We are well acquainted with our seam rippers as well;). Virtual high fives!!
It would be wonderful if we could save this valuable info, but I see the download has been disabled. Any way to get a brochure? Thanks.
Love to have a copy of this. Very needed information. Thank you!
We’ve just received printed copies to our HQ in Italy. We’ll have news of how to get your own printed copy soon! Keep an eye our for our second installment this coming Sunday. We’ll post news there:). Thank you!!
Too bad the download has been disabled. Is there any way to get a hard copy of this brochure. It looks terrific, but I can read for just so long on the computer, and other than copying it and printing it out and putting it in a binder, I have no way to keep it for reference. By the way, I love Aurifil, no matter what the colour of the core.
Hi Barbara — We’ve just received printed copies to our HQ in Italy. Keep an eye on our next post this coming Sunday for news on how to get your own! Thanks so much for your support and we’re thrilled that you found the info useful:).
I, like the others, would very much like a downloadable document. Would be soooo helpful!
So glad that you found it useful!! We’ve just received hard copies to our HQ in Italy. Keep an eye out for our next post this coming Sunday for more info on how to get your own!
This is great information and the brochure is some serious eye candy. I would like to save a copy for reference but other than Pining it to pinterest there doesn’t seem to be any way to retain a copy. Too bad because this is an excellent reference tool for Aurifil lovers.
Hi Diane! We have just received our printed copies to our HQ in Italy. Keep an eye on our next post this coming Sunday for info on how to get your own. We’re so glad that you found the information helpful!
Wonderful information! I knew Aurifuil was made from Egyptian cotton but never knew Mako was a region in Egypt. The full brochure is beautiful!
Thanks so much Paige!! We’re so pleased with how it turned out:)
What a wonderful informative article! Thank you so much!
You’re very welcome, Mary! Thank you for your support!
I too am interested in a hard copy or download of the brochure for future use
I would like hard copy, as well. Color never comes through properly on my printer.
Hi Helen! We’ve just received our printed copies to our HQ in Italy. Keep an eye out for our next post this coming Sunday for more info on how to get your own:).
great info: I’d love it if you could put a “what size needle recommended with what thread” guide on your side bar so we could access it when we use the different threads. That would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks, H
Hi Helen:)
We are just getting ready to overhaul our product pages on the website and will be adding this info to each product page. I love the idea to add the info to our sidebar as well and will bring it up in our next Marketing meeting! Thank you!!
Great idea Helen LeBrett! I just LOVE this thread so much! The colors are so rich as well as being superior quality… it’s like looking in a jewelry box. I’d love to see all of the threads on a card that I could keep in my sewing room for when I needed to purchase. We have a LQS that carries some of the threads, but not all. I only buy from there if I am in a jam and need one ASAP. AURIFIL, I really appreciate the education you provide so that we make the correct selections which helps our projects turn out as they should. Again, Helen’s idea is a great one that should also be implemented!
Hi Dee — thank you so much for your feedback too! I loved Helen’s idea and will bring it up in our next meeting:). We do also have color cards available — you should be able to order one through your LQS, or if they do not have them available, you might find them online at Hawthorne Threads. Thank you for your support & Happy Stitching!
My favorite thread in any weight…there is one for every project in glorious colors that fail to fray or break…how great is that?
We love this feedback, Jeanne, thank you!! 🙂 Happy Stitching!
Happy 10th USA Birthday Aurifil! I’m so happy to have found you a few years ago.
Thank you for the thre-ducation. 40 and 50 wt have been my go to weights. Anxious to try th 28 wt on my machine now w/the 40 wt on my bobbin….I’m so glad I read this post. Thank you!
Hi Diane! Thank you:). We sure are having fun! We’d love to hear what you think of the 28wt — happy stitching!!
Thank you for the birthday wishes! I hope you love the 28wt, let us know how it goes!
Wish the brochure listed the colors shown. I really like the middle green in the second row in the cover.
Hi Jen! That is color #123, one of my favorite shades!
Thanks, Kristi