Thread type question (Can I use sewing thread?)

[Griswald]

Silly one,

I have about alot of traditional threads I use to tie with but I am lacking a color I need, and on Vashon Is. there are no fly shops...In a pinch can I just pick up some cotton sewing thread?

THanks for the help.

Matthew

[hikepat]

Yes and no.
Sewing thread will work but it will rot away fasters and is not normally quite as strong as the thread you get at the fly shop from what I have been told.
This is information I saw on a post on another fly fishing board.
It was also posted that normal sewing thread was used in most tying till a couple generations ago.

That being said I have used it for thread bodies because I could not find at the shop the color red I wanted for some blood worms one time but found the right color in an old box of sewing thread I had and it worked just fine for that. Not sure about rot because the flies were all coated in nail polish.
I also tried it as a tying thread on some caddis flies just to try it and found it was hard to get it to work with the deer hair. I kept breaking the thread.
Myself I would use again for thread bodies if needed for just the right color but its so inexpensive I will stick to the right stuff for tying thread.

[Randy Diefert]

If you use a light or Tan colored thread you can most of the time color it with permanent markers to get your desired colors. I was taught that you shouldn't use sewing threads because they'll rot fast and fall apart even when coated with laquer head cement because the water gets in and under the wraps anyway.
I've gone to buying 8/0 threads in bulk in light colors and loading them onto my norlander spools and coloring them as I need them.

[luv2fly2]

sewing thread is not waxed and sometimes will change colors more than waxed tying thread. mike w