Gilt Sylke Twist Has Been Released

We received a few spools of the new Gilt Sylke Twist in our Access Commodities order recently and they've flown out the door. There are 8 colors in this new thread, we received 4 of them initially. Supplies will be limited for the time being as this thread is made by a small firm in England for Access Commodities, not by a large manufacturing company. We will be sent more spools of the colors as they are available but we expect it to be limited quantities for the next couple of months. I have added it to our online catalog so you can pre-order what you want and we'll send them as we get them. Given Access has been trying to get them to make this thread for more than a dozen years, I'm just happy they've finally made it and we can even get any of it!

I spoke today with Natalie, a stitching acquaintance of mine, who has been using this thread to experiment with for Access. She said she'd been able to stitch with 30 and 34 count Legacy Linen as well as Congress Cloth and 18 Mesh canvas. The stiffer the fabric the easier it is to work with and a hoop, Q-Snap or stretcher bars would be helpful. Natalie has done chain stitch, Smyrna cross, cross-stitch, satin stitch, eyelets and even French knots with it (using 2 hands). It's a flexible and quite durable thread to work with. Depending on the fabric you can use a #24 Tapestry or #24 Chenille, although Natalie reported that the Japanese #10 needles Access distributes works great because of the unusual shape of the eye, which opens the fabric much more than a tapestry or chenille does. You want to use a waste knot and run the thread under 3-4 stitches then back again under 1 or 2 to lock it. You can use the loop method to start but you will have a slight bump there. She also recommended using a separate cutting tool for this thread. It is a 1/2% gold on a silver plated copper core so use something dedicated to this and not your good scissors. You could use serrated scissors, beading snips or even nail clippers (which is what Natalie uses). I appreciated Natalie sharing her stitching experience with this thread with me. I'm hoping to have some time to work with it myself soon.

This is one of the threads being used on the Plimoth Plantation's jacket project and you can follow their stitching progress on The Embroiderer's Story blog.