# Polyester vs. Rayon - which is best



## rthornton4 (Feb 4, 2013)

Hi all,
I am so confused. Last weekend a technician came out to service our commercial embroidery machine. We have a Texmac 1501 embroidery machine and had developed some real issues in the bobbin & tension settings. The original owner had purchased at least 1 starter pack of Madeira 1000M rayon viscose thread which we have been sewing with. He recommended that we stop using the rayon thread because it plays havoc on the tension on our machine. Also, these spools are not behaving properly on our machine, causing a lot of thread breaks as the thread is unwinding from the bottom of the cone. The colors are gorgeous though!! Plus I just finished reading an article on AllStitch Embroidery Supplies - Your Discount Embroidery Supply Source on the pros and cons of rayon vs. polyester thread and it looks like the victor was rayon. So I'm wondering if y'all would be so kind as to weigh in and let me know what you are using and what your thoughts are on this debate. Thanks so much in advance!!


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

If you're embroidering garments, polyester will wear better. Rayon fades.


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## rthornton4 (Feb 4, 2013)

Thanks Splathead!! That's a good point and something to consider. My understanding is that at least Madeira is making their polyneon line fairly compatible with their rayon line.


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## selzler (Apr 4, 2007)

If bleach gets on rayon it take the color out of the thread and polyester it will not happen.


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## best26102 (Sep 29, 2013)

like poly..


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## SunEmbroidery (Oct 18, 2007)

Polyester can be bleached (although I would still be careful with red), is less likely to cause thread breaks, can be run faster, doesn't get old and brittle and is cheaper.

Rayon is available in more colors, has a greater sheen and is the "traditional" type of embroidery thread.

I started with rayon because that's what my first machine came with. I was much happier after I switched to polyester a couple of years later basically because it ran better and was cheaper. I have some rayon in shades that I needed (often for PMS matching) that didn't exist in Madeira poly. Although some will say you shouldn't mix rayon and poly in the same design because each type requires a different bobbin tension I have mixed the two types thousands of times without any problems. Many large shops that basically use rayon will use white, black and red in poly to reduce down time and potential running problems with red thread. 

When poly thread was first introduced the colors didn't look as nice as similar rayon colors so many people didn't like it. Over time the look improved and the number of colors increased.

If you plan to embroider items such as uniforms that may be bleached I would use poly. If you plan to embroider lots of realistic wildlife then you may want to use rayon because you have more flexibility with shading because of the number of available colors and the appearance of different colors that can be created from the same shade of thread by varying the stitch type, length and direction of the same shade of thread although this type of work should be reserved for advanced digitizers who specialize in wildlife.


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