Monday 1 December 2008

More for your Money

Why bigger is better.

The larger thread cones are, yard-by-yard, more economical. Here in the UK if you buy a big cone of King Tut, you get 2000 yds. of extra-long staple, really-grown-in-Egypt, cotton for £16.99. If you opt for the smaller spool because it seems cheaper, you pay £5.75 for 500 yds. It's the same great stuff, but you're actually paying 30 pence per yard more for the same thread on the smaller spools. The coins are different in America, but the principles remain the same.

The hidden cost of smaller spools:

We all have an unfortunate habit of underestimating the amount of thread we need to complete our projects. Rather than spend the £16.99 to purchase the 2000 yards. We think we could manage with 2 smaller spools giving 1000 yards. So we purchase 2 small spools at £5.75 each, costing a mere £11.50. We go home begin our project, get two thirds of the way through and run out of thread. So we drive back to the shop, pay petrol and parking and hope the matching thread is still in stock. If we’re lucky we purchase another 2 of the smaller spools, because we learned our lesson and don’t want to run out again, and spend another £11.50. Now we’re up to £23.00 plus the cost of parking and petrol or P&P and the delay if we're ordering online. All told, we just spent £6.00 more than if we’d purchased the larger cone plus the added expense and aggravation of the extra journey.

The larger top feed cones also run more smoothly on your machine. This means less thread tension related problems. Most newer sewing machines have integral thread stands that accommodate these larger spools. If you have an older machine we have a thread stand that will allow any sewing machine to take advantage of the larger top feed spools.

Bulk buying saves money, and with thread you don't have to worry about it going off! Thread has a great shelf life, keep it out of the sun and dust free and it will always be there when you need it.

1 comment:

Trudi said...

I have found having a wide selection of thread makes choosing the right thread for each project far easier. Firstly having them to hand means I can audition different threads on my quilt top to see what they looks like against the different fabrics in my quilt. Many times my expectations of a fabulous thread on the spool, have changed when seen against the top. Secondly, I can then get straight down to the quilting without having to either go and shop or wait for the mail to arrive days later. By going through this process for each of my quilts I save time in the long run and know that I will not be disappoointed with the end result.