Hi all,
Also, there's the shrinkage. Non mercerised cotton has a tendancy to shrink, that will result in puckered seams after washing (desired in jeans!). Mercerised cotton has far less shrinkage and will "de-twist" less easy while being pulled through a machine needle (you know the horror of that
). Jeans, btw these days are top stitched with corespun yarns. These have a strong poluester core and long staple cotton spun around that core. Beware of using cheap cotton handstitching yarn on your machine; it will produce huge amouns of lint and dust in the hook and race area.
Schneiderfrei, I don't know where it coms from but around here we usually call topstitching yarn "cordonnet", which sounds like a musical instrument used for folk dancing...
Cheers, Hendrick