unraveling the mystery of thread size

7/29/2019 Unraveling the Mystery of Thread Size

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Unr ave l ing t he Mys te r y o f Th r ead Size .By Ken Nelson

Senior Prod uct Man ager - Sew ing Thr ead, Coat s & Clark

Since the dawn of time people have joined thingstogether (skins, hides, fabrics) to make clothing andshelters using thread (sinews, twisted animal hair,twisted fibers). Precise size didnt matter to these earlyseamstresses and tailors they just wanted somethingthat worked fine, medium or heavy.

Over the centuries cottage industries sprang up andbecame specialized. Weavers, and manufacturers ofsewn products purchased thread from people, groups, orcompanies that specialized in making thread. In order tocommunicate, thread sizing conventions weredeveloped. Unfortunately, manufacturing was takingplace in many different countries, and they all seem tohave their own measuring systems. The English likedweight in pounds so they developed the Cotton Count(Ne), the French developed Denier for their continuous

filament threads, and as time went on the metric systemtook hold in many countries and the Metric Count (Nm)system resulted. In modern times manufacturersdeveloped a more consistent measuring system calledTex. All of this led to much confusion.

A modern home thread consumer has the same needsas those early seamstresses - a fine, medium, or heavythread. If the thread is manufactured by a reputablemanufacturer there will be consistency in size from spoolto spool.

To understand the numbering systems you need toknow that thread sizing systems are either based onFixed Weight or Fixed Length.


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Fi xed We igh t sys tem s use t he l eng th o f t h e t h r ead

t h a t m a k es u p a g i v en w e ig h t .

So, for the Cotton Count (Ne) system, the size is equal

to the number of 840 Yd. hanks of thread it takes toequal 1 pound.

A cotton count of 1 means 840 yards = 1 Pound A cotton count of 2 means 1680 yards (840 X 2)

= 1 Pound

A common cotton count thread size is 40/3. The 40refers to the single ply and it means that 40

840Yd.hanks of thread = 1 pound, but the 3 meansthat it is three ply so the number is divided by 3 (inother words it only takes 280 yards to = 1 pound).

Another common fixed weight system is simply calledThread Weight. It is the length of thread that weighs 1gram. The number of plies do not need to be taken intoconsideration in this system so a thread that weighs 1gram and is 30 meters long is a 30 Wt. thread.

I n f i x e d w e ig h t s y st e m s , t h e h i g h er t h e n u m b er

t h e f i ne r t he t h r ead .

Fixed Leng t h syst em s use the w e igh t o f a g i ven

leng th .

Denier count (Td) is a fixed length system for

continuous filament threads. It is the weight in grams of9000 meters.

The tex system (TEX) is probably the easiest tounderstand, and is the most consistent. It is the weightin grams of 1000 meters. It doesnt matter if the threadis two, three, or four plies; you just reel off 1000 meters


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and put it on a scale. So 1000 meters that weighs 1gram = 1 Tex.

I n f i x e d l en g t h s y s t e m s , t h e h i g h er t h e n u m b er

th e th i cke r t he th read . Since b igger i s h igher i t i s m uch m ore l og i ca l .

You cant leave the subject of thread size without addingone more commonly used old numbering system simplycalled Size. This is an approximate numbering systemthat groups threads back around the fine, medium, andheavy categories. Fine threads would be about a Size60, Medium threads would be about a Size 50, and

Heavy threads would be about a Size 20. Once again, itis not intuitive as the higher the number the finer thethread. It is not recommended, but you will still see thisnumber on spool tickets and cones.

Here are some helpful formulas for converting one sizingsystem to another:

To convert cotton count to TEX:(590.5 / cotton count) * Plies

To convert from Denier to TEX:(Denier * .1111) * Plies

To convert from Tex to Weight:(109 / TEX) * 10

The fo l l ow ing cha r t he l ps in comp ar i ng t h e va r i ous

th read si z ing conven t ions .


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COTTON TO TEX TO W EI GHT CONVERSI ONS

CottonCount

Singles

Ply SinglesTex

TexNumber

RoundedTex

Number

CalculatedWeight

Aprox."Weight"

AproxSize

54 2 11 22 21 50 50 60

50 2 12 24 24 46 50 60

40 2 15 30 27 37 40 60

47 3 13 38 35 29 30 50

40 3 15 44 40 25 25 40

35 3 17 51 50 22 20 30

MONO-FI LAMENT CONVERSI ONS DENI ER TO TEX

TO W EI GHT

DenierSingles

Ply SinglesTex

TexNumber

RoundedTex

Number

CalculatedWeight

Aprox."Weight"

AproxSize

115 2 13 26 24 43 40 60120 2 13 27 27 41 40 60

KEY

Pink =Light Threads generally used for finer quilting, machinembroidery, piecing, appliqu, and micro stippling.

Lt.Blue =

Medium Threads generally used for piecing, andquilting.

Green=

Heavy Threads generally used when a strong, boldthread is desired as in Hand Quilting.


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Confus ing?

Yes! Bu t w hen i t s al l said and don e , th e best s i ze

t h read t o use is t he one t ha t l ooks best on t h e

qu i l t o r p r o j ec t . Don t ge t t oo hung up on spec if i ca t i ons . Pl ay w i t h t h e t h reads t o de te rm ine

w h a t y o u l i k e an d w h e n y o u f i n d o n e y o u l i k e,

reco rd t he b rand and any s i ze in f o rm a t i on you f i nd

on t he spool o r cone so t h a t you can f i nd t h e

t h read aga in . Then you re ready t o do w ha t y ou

l i ke and do best.sew ing and qu i l t i ng !

unraveling the mystery of thread size

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