Extra Fine Linen Sewing Thread

Linen yarn is a typical sewing thread for medieval garments. The thread offered here is so fine that it is also suitable for embroidery in Opus Anglicanum technique.

Good-quality linen yarn makes sewing a much more pleasant experience, but linen yarn often features slubs in the single threads. These slubs are not only a nuisance when working, they also mean a weak spot in the thread.

I have searched for nice, smooth, sturdy linen thread for quite some time, and I am happy to have found one finally with no or next to no slubs and imperfections in the thread. Each little spool holds 100 m of thread. If you sew much more with linen thread, larger quantities are possible - just contact me.The thread is a good bit thinner than the "Sternzwirn" often used by Germans and is plied from three singles in Z-direction. Three singles plied make a smoother thread than two singles, and almost all linen yarns nowadays are plied from three or even more singles. In the middle ages, more than two-ply yarn was an absolute exception; the surviving threads are almost exclusively singles or two-ply yarns. However, the number of singles plied together in this thread is only visible if the thread is twisted enough to open it up.

The thread is a slightly broken white, not bleached to brilliant white. White linen is often mentioned in medieval texts, and a clear and clean white colour of this material was praised. The yarn is wound onto a reed core that will fit with any historical sewing kit.

Linen thread is very strong (unless buried in soil, where the slightly acidic milieu dissolves vegetable fibres), but can be harmed by too much rubbing from the needle eye in one spot. So when using linen thread, make sure the eye of your needle has no sharp ridges, and move the needle further along the thread at regular intervals while sewing. Lightly waxing the linen thread with beeswax will significantly protect the linen yarn and also inhibit tangling of longer threads, so while I recommend waxing most sewing threads, it really is a "must do" with linen.