Incredible Shrinking... Thread?

We had our monthly SCAT meeting at a member's old homestead yesterday.

It was a beautiful, sunny day in the country.


An old cat was lounging on the porch.

and voiced its annoyance at my invasion of its privacy.

The wonderful big dog wasn't sure about all of us walking around in his house.

But he took it in his stride. There was a little dog too, a dachshund, that was quite friendly and wanted to be a part of everything. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of her. She was a little social butterfly until she went and took a nap.
Our "learn something new" project was demonstrated by MJ. She showed us some "magic" thread.

This is amazing. You use it in the bobbin... or, if you like, both the spool and bobbin of your sewing machine. We tried both and it worked better with the thread in both the top and bottom of the fabric.

These are the directions.

We didn't use an iron. We used a heat gun and had to be very careful not to scorch the fabric. But, this thread is amazing. You can watch it shrink and pucker the fabric.
We tried other fabrics besides silk. It seems to work on just about any lightweight fabric.

We didn't try this on the tulle.. I know from experience that heat and tulle don't mix well and can burn easily.

It worked here...

I think you could take the labor out of smocking with this thread. It also adds texture to any fabric.

And you can definitely make a ruffled edge on anything with it.

A new skill that gave us all a new way of using fabric for our various art projects. Thanks MJ.

Big dog wasn't impressed.

"Mom. Are these folks leaving soon?"

"She's taking pictures of me again and I'm getting a little tired of it."
He was sweet about my camera and didn't get up and leave... but I knew it was time to stop aiming the camera at him when he gave me this sideways look.

We had a great time. It was good to get together with my friends and we left with a new skill.

You can buy the Incredible Shrinking Thread on Amazon but they're out of it right now. Equilter.com has it for $10.50 a spool... but if you join http://www.shoppersrule.com/pc/SP-INCSRTHRD/CSSWS/index.html you can buy it for $5.99 a spool. That's a good deal. I think I'm going to join.