What is Mercerized Cotton?

While most cotton thread manufacturers neglect to say their cotton threads are mercerized or not, many are. I think most manufacturers of high quality cotton threads mercerise their cotton.


John Mercer from England in 1844 (hence the name of the Mercerizing process) treated cotton with sodium hydroxide because he believed it made the cotton swell. The process was done because it made the cotton stronger and much easier to die. 

The process was not mastered until another guy by the name of H A Lowe innovated the process and resulted in a lustrous cotton. Nowadays the mercerizing process treats cotton with sodium hydroxide bath then neutralized afterwards with an acid bath. Sometimes mercerized cotton is referred to as Pearl or Pearle cotton.

Mercerized Cotton Thread

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
What is a Quilt? Quilting is an art. To put things in perspective and for the sake of simplicity lets define a quilt as a sandwich. This sandwich has 3 parts to it. Usually Quilts have been used as bed covers, but in all honesty such a quilt like the one above by Colette Dumont is a museum-class piece of art.  Just like a sandwich there is a middle part, a top and a bottom. Let me explain:   1-        The Top of the Quilt This is the layer where the quilter spends the most time and effort sewing different fabric pieces together into a beautiful design (woven patchwork). It could also include applique and embroidery.   2-        The Middle of the Quilt (The Batting) This part of the quilt which is also called the patting can be cotton  or a variety of different materials.   3-        The Bottom of the Quilt (The Backing) This part usually is a one piece of fabric which sits on the top of the bed or on the wall and usually is the invisible part
Read more
Image
Why I prefer Quilter’s Grade Fabrics over the cheap Fabrics? When quilting or sewing you can go to some chain stores and buy fabric for as little as $3 per yard. And you can go to Quilting shops and spend up to $14 per yard or more. So What is the difference? Cheap fabric is cheap but let me explain in detail. Fabric is made out of threads (eg. 60/60 per square inch. Cheap fabrics consider 60/60 is the super duper fabric and often are way less (30/30).  For Premium quilting fabrics this is the absolute minimum. The higher the thread count the silkier the fabric, the more it lives and the less bearding. Another differentiation between cheap and premium fabrics is the diameter of the yarns and for cotton the length of the staples. Obviously the larger the diameter of the yarn and the longer the staple of the cotton the better the fabric. Premium quilting fabrics use more colors which ads to the cost of making them. Another difference is that premium fabrics once p
Read more
Image
Why Sewing Machines and Vacuum Cleaners are sold together? When I was young I used to ask so many questions to my old man and his answer was always stop asking stupid questions. One of those so called stupid questions was why specialty stores sell sewing machines and vacuum cleaners under one roof? It was not until years later when I got interested in embroidery and quilting this question came to mind once again. I did a bit of research, some reasoning and I found the answer to why stores who sell sewing machines also sell vacuum cleaners. It turned out that Singer which is one of the best sewing machines in history (not anymore) used to make vacuum cleaners as well so it would only make sense that the dealer stores would carry both. Another good point is that both sewing machines and vacuum cleaners use similar parts: small electric motors and belts. Both break down often and someone who knows how to fix a sewing machine can easily fix a vacuum cleaner as well. It
Read more