Sewing supplies for the prepper

In the mailbox this week I received a great question:


Ms. Susan,

I had a question and hoped you could answer. We were putting a sewing kit of sorts together and disagreed on the type of general thread to use. Disagreement between silk and cotton or cotton blend. I had acquired some wooden spools for a project and observed the cotton or blends easily broke and the silk was still very strong. Granite, this thread is about 30 yrs old...

Which type of thread would you use? Is there a man made thread that would be a better choice? I recall my grandmother kept silk thread in her first aid kit which her mother did..mine said she'd just take us to the doctor.

We always kept those little gimme sewing kits you can put in your purse, so we have plenty, if the thread lasts.


It may be surprising to some that thread does, indeed, age and become fragile.  Sometimes it'll 'knot' up as you try to sew with it, by by hand and in machines.  Newer sewing machines are even more picky about the quality and age of thread, jamming up easily and messing with the tension.

I've had some experience with old thread that worked poorly in my 30-year old sewing machine, but worked okay for light hand-sewing such as mending small tears or replacing buttons. Some was so bad that it stuck to itself and 'clumped', and was unusable.

However, I don't have extensive sewing experience, so I'm throwing this subject out to you, the readers, and asking for input.  I also have a few friends who are very into sewing, and I will ask them too, and post their answers here when I hear back from them.

Please leave comments below, or email them to: povertyprepping@yahoo.com

Thanks!
Susan