Instead of vintage fabric, today I’m going to show you some vintage thread I purchased on ebay a while back. I found an article in the NY Times dated January, 1886, titled The Manufacture of Linen Thread, How Flax is Grown — Barbour Bros. & Co., a Century of Tread Making. According to the article, Barbour Bros. & Co. manufactured “all kinds of linen thread, including shoe thread, saddler’s thread, sewing machine and carpet thread, salmon and grilling thread, and also carpet yarn.”
My thread was probably produced by the New York or New Jersey mills operated by the Barbour brothers, with the flax imported from their original company in Ireland. It’s heavier than quilting thread, still feels very soft, and appears to be in perfect condition.
My mother always stitched her braided wool rugs together with linen thread, and I’m sure she would have loved this stuff. It’s a pretty weird purchase, but it was just so cool looking, cheap, and I thought maybe I could try it as a sort of big-stitch quilting thread, since I don’t know how to make a shoe.
Wow Martha you find the BEST stuff, lol. I bet it would work great for big-stitch quilting!
stunning, there is no way I would be able to resist either!
Hello, I sure can use this box of shoe threads at the moment I just ran out of mine. They do come up from time to time on ebay and suchlike, But it’s the same old story, where is it when you need it. If you were willing to sell me this I would be very interested ASAP. I have a few empty Barbour boxes you can have too if you collect such things