Seeing the Quality in the Stitching

Because I sew so much, I can pick out a poor quality sewing job almost immediately. Shortcuts get taken because it's cheaper and and faster, and a lot of commercially sewn items will show evidence of that shortcutting. Manufacturers get away with it because most people don't know what to look for.

I wasn't expecting much as I took Kohl's blanket off to look at it. But the stitching on the velcro jumped out at me immediately, and in a good way.

See that small stitch of red thread? That was the clue. And, it is not evidence of a shortcut, it is evidence of quality. 

I flipped the blanket over and saw that red thread had been used to stitch the velcro to the outer side of the blanket. Red was reasonable as it is the predominant color in the blanket and as a result, many of the stitches blend in and are less noticeable.

The flip side of the blanket used the bobbin thread. Now, normally your bobbin and top threads match when you are sewing.

My bobbin cases.

But when both sides of the item you are sewing are going to be showing, essentially you have two top threads instead of a bobbin and a top thread. So, the bobbin thread is changed out to match the color of what it is being sewn onto.

Here's an example. This haversack's predominant color is black, so when I attached the customer's velcro to the flap, I used black thread for the top thread.

But on the inside, I switched the bobbin thread from black to white because the haversack lining was white. For the other strip of velcro on the black part of the bag, I changed the top thread from black to white because I was sewing onto the white velcro, not the black haversack. The bobbin was white, too, because of the white fleece on the flip side.

Most people wouldn't even notice that attention to detail, but it is evidence of a sewist doing quality work - winding and changing those bobbins and top threads in and out repeatedly takes time. So to see that Breyer had their sewists switch threads back and forth speaks a lot about their desire for a quality product.

But there was more evidence of quality on Kohl's blanket. Look how nicely the bias tape binding has been applied!

Nichelle Jones of Desktop Stables is one of the best of the best when it comes to applying bias tape. It takes time and effort to do it right. Her bias tape binding is beautiful. But the bias tape on Kohl, while done with the one-step method rather than the two-step like Nichelle does, is still done well.

Take a look at this last picture. Can you pick out another bit of evidence as to the quality sewing job on Koh's blanket?

Another thread change! Instead of using red thread, the sewist switched to white when he or she applied the Breyer tag. A little more time intensive, but the result is a better quality product.

I kid you not, every sewist gets tired of thread and bobbin changes. But if you see evidence that they did, then you know they were trying to stitch that product to the best of their ability.

Kudos to those who stitched up the blankets for Kohl.