ok......"LADIES"........help "Clueless" males select a Basic Sewing Kit for SHTF

[randyt]

Great subject. I need to get a few basic kits. Currently i have a tackle box with thread, needles, artificial sinew, snaps, rapid rivets, copper harness rivets, chicago rivets, cloth tape, rotating leather punch, triangular awl, awl. Easy awl. I picked up a big spool of thread, tan color. I use dental floss for sewing on buttons.
There are great tips in this thread and i can see some holes in my big kit. Need to remedy that..

 

[randyt]

I went on a winter camping trip with some folks that had walked.the AT. They talked about a tape called tenacious tape. They used this tape clothing repair..

 

[Peanut]

Maybe some help? These spools of thread were in a box when I moved here, belonged to my aunt I think. They are probably from the 80's, most have the brand name "Coats" or "Coats & Clark".

3 have a label that reads "Mercerized Cotton", the name brand is "Clark's Ont". I don't know what mercerized cotton is but it doesn't sound good.

Most of the spools are a very dense Styrofoam I haven't seen.

Thoughts?

 

[Rebecca]

As far as I know "mercerized" means the cotton was treated to make it hold the dye colour better and to give it more tensile strength, there was more I don't remember, maybe produces less lint.

 

[Peanut]

As far as I know "mercerized" means the cotton was treated to make it hold the dye colour better and to give it more tensile strength, there was more I don't remember, maybe produces less lint.

Thanks, I got time to research it a little after my post. Basically the thread or yarn gets soaked in lye, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) aka caustic soda.

Makes me wonder... If I had to sew up a bad cut with regular thread wouldn't it sting like heck? I got caustic soda in my eyes when an oil rig blew out in the gulf one night. It definitely stings!

 

[DrPrepper]

Thanks, I got time to research it a little after my post. Basically the thread or yarn gets soaked in lye, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) aka caustic soda.

Makes me wonder... If I had to sew up a bad cut with regular thread wouldn't it sting like heck? I got caustic soda in my eyes when an oil rig blew out in the gulf one night. It definitely stings!

Peanut, I don't think cotton thread would be my first choice for suturing a wound- not because of the caustic soda (because that is rinsed out) , but because there would be too much lint and a much greater chance to incubate bacteria in the wound. I'd be more inclined to use silk, nylon, or rayon thread if I didn't have actual suture material (or even fine fishing line) instead of cotton. Of course, if cotton was the ONLY choice, I'd probably want to boil it first in the hopes of removing some of the potential pathogens. As for the threads in your post, they will probably be fine for general sewing. Just keep in mind that if they are from the 80's, they may have dried out some and can be a little brittle. I'd be careful using them in a sewing machine because they could produce excess lint and produce jams (meaning clean your machine well every time you use it with those threads!). For hand sewing, they should be fine. Coats and Clark is a fairly respectable name in the sewing world.