Aurifil abuse: mythbusting

The prosecution has alleged that nylon monofilament thread melts under heat. Eg. Ironing. I'm not sure why you'd iron a finished quilt (am I missing something?) but I HAD to try these Aurifil invisible threads out. 

Anyway, I asked Senore Alex if he could confirm or deny the allegation. In between deciding what wine we'd have with dinner in my Aurifl coloured kitchen (don't you love how flirting is a national sport in Italy?), Alex stated emphatically that he never says anything bad about his threads but doesn't mind other people doing so. But he did refer me to a couple of posts where invisible thread had been heat tested. So I decided to indulge in a little thread S&M of my own and really put it the Aurifil through its paces. (It was masochistic because I flinched every time I put the hot iron on the thread. I'm really not good at deliberately trying to ruin things). 

Please don't call the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Aurifil). 

Being mean to thread means two things to me. One - Free motion quilting. If a thread or a machine is going to flip-up (you know what I mean), it will be free-motion quilting. Two - ironing. High heat. No steam. Not being gentle. I decided I needed a test piece that I could really see the invisible thread on.

I'd been doodling a tree design from a picture I saw at a function centre in Perth. Sorry for the really bad photo, but here it is. So I decided to doodle my own version with my machine, with the dark monofilament thread on a test piece of fabric. 

First, I loaded and ran the dark monofil on a straight stitch. It worked fine. The only issue was that my Bernina 820's auto threader kept UNTHREADING the monofil immediately after threading and I wasn't fast enough to catch it in the second it was through the needle. Grr. So I ended up threading it by hand. The thing about invisible thread is... it's invisible. Or practically. So that was fun. 

I deliberately did the dark thread on light fabric so you and I could see what it did when I abused it with the iron. So here goes.

Before:

Iron on hottest setting. Hold it on for 5 seconds at a time. Eyes closed and toes crossed...

And here's the result.

Can you see that thread running across it? You know I'm appalling at cutting my thread ends off. I decided this one was useful. I couldn't really tell if any of the thread had frizzled in the stitching, so I repeated the torture with that end-thread. Let's have a closer look. Look for any frizzling, melty bits or unevenness in the thread.

Can you see any? 

Nope. I can't either.

So that is myth number 1 out the way. Aurifl nylon monofilament thread does not melt under heat.

I hope Mr Alex is happy with that!

I should point out that monofil works brilliantly with straightline quilting, not just free-motion. Particularly with bright colours where it's hard to choose the right thread.

There's still a chance to win the thread here. There are a heap of no-reply bloggers who have commented - please check your reply status if you are entering competitions. It makes it hard to track people down. 

Happy stitching!