Are you looking for a lustrous, shimmery sewing thread that you could use for stitching eye-catching decorative details? Perhaps you’re a quilter who enjoys adding embroidered designs to your quilts — or maybe you’re a fiber artist who enjoys creating embroidered wall hangings, tote bags, or other items.
Or maybe you’re a paper crafter who wants to add stitching to your paper craft projects.
If any of the above scenarios describe your situation, Sulky 40 wt Rayon Thread is an excellent option you might want to consider.
Sulky 40 wt Rayon Thread Is Ideal for Embroidery, but Not for Sewing Patchwork
I love this thread for its sheer beauty, and I recommend it for machine embroidery.
It’ll work for hand embroidery, too — but for hand embroidery, be aware that it is much finer than, say, DMC cotton embroidery floss. You’ll have to work harder to cover an area with this stuff than you would have to work to cover an area with standard embroidery floss.
Rayon Sulky’s shiny texture is ideal for use in situations where you want the look of silk, but you don’t want the expense of silk — or you don’t want it to weigh on your conscience that silk worms died so you could have a pretty embroidered project. As far as I know, Sulky’s rayon thread is vegan friendly.
I do not recommend Sulky 40 wt Rayon Thread for sewing the seams on patchwork quilts, patchwork jackets, patchwork skirts or any other patchwork — especially patchwork that would need to be laundered frequently.
I also do not recommend this thread for sewing seams on any garments or projects that will be frequently washed.
This is because rayon does not hold up well to wet washing. Rayon loses much of its strength when it gets wet, and so machine washing it in water leaves it vulnerable to damage.
You might have noticed that many rayon garments are tagged with care instructions that say “dry clean only,” and this vulnerability to damage is the primary reason for that. If you’re willing to dry clean the projects you make with rayon thread, they will likely last you longer and hold up better in the long term than they would if you were to wash them in water.
That said, for sewing patchwork, it’s much safer to stick with cotton thread, because cotton thread is stronger and more durable. Cotton thread withstands repeated washing, wear and tear better than rayon thread does. For environmental reasons, I recommend using organic cotton thread instead of conventionally grown cotton thread.
Craft Project Ideas for Using Sulky 40 wt Rayon Thread
I suggest using Sulky’s rayon thread for exquisite, luxurious projects you will use on special occasions — items that will not be subjected to massive amounts of wear and tear.
This thread is ideally suited for use in projects where you want to create a rich, lavish look. A few examples:
- If you’re sewing for a soon-to-be-married couple, you could use this thread to monogram their initials on a ring-bearer’s pillow.
- You could use this thread to machine embroider lovely details on a bridal gown, bridesmaid’s gown or mother-of-the-bride’s gown.
- You could use rayon Sulky thread for embroidering decorative details on a wall hanging, tapestry, art quilt, cell phone pouch, pencil bag or similar item.
- Why not try embroidering unique details onto decorative scatter cushions for your bed or favorite easy chair?
- I bought this spool of Sulky rayon thread with the idea of using it for adding lavish-looking stitching to my paper craft projects, including art journals, junk journals and scrapbooking layouts — but I haven’t tried it yet to see how it will work.
I use the We R Makers Book Binding Punch Guide Tool for creating mini albums, and I am hoping this thread will be usable for stitching bindings in the journal inserts and mini albums I want to make. But, the jury is out; I haven’t yet tried it, so I have no idea whether it will work out as well as I’m hoping.
And furthermore, I’m not sure whether this Sulky rayon thread will be strong enough to use for machine-stitching paper, which can be a little touchy — so it is still on my to-do list to try this and see how it will work out.
Sulky’s Rayon Thread Color Palette
The folks at Sulky offer this thread in an extensive and super impressive color palette. All together, there are 383 different solid colors of this rayon thread, and there are 55 different multicolored, variegated rayon thread colors. This gives you a whopping 438 color choices — which, to me, is mind boggling. Just wow!
The lovely coppery color you see pictured above is Sulky 40 wt Rayon Thread, Color 1313 — color name: “Bittersweet”. But if you don’t happen to like that color, or you need a different color to match a fabric you have in your stash, you have many other lovely color choices to choose from.
Cons: Downsides to Sulky 40 Wt Rayon Thread
Aside from its inherent fragility (which is a characteristic of rayon itself, and not a problem that’s specific to the Sulky brand of rayon thread,) rayon Sulky does not have many downsides.
But there is one other con I should mention: This thread is pricey, compared to some of the other alternatives out there.
That said, it won’t break the bank for you to buy a spool of this thread and give it a try. The smallest 250-yard spool of this thread costs around five bucks, so the upfront cost isn’t a huge hurdle. And, you can sometimes find it on sale for as little as three dollars and change (for example, check current availability of sale colors HERE).
Where the costs really start to add up is if you are going to buy a spool of thread to match every fabric you have in your craft supplies stash, or if you’re planning to do large machine embroidered designs that eat up a lot of thread.
If you’re a professional embroiderer, costume designer, fashion designer or tailor, you might want to consider buying Sulky 40 Wt Rayon Thread in 5,500-yard jumbo cones, which cost more upfront but tend to give you a substantially better price per yard.
You can also buy collections and kits that include this thread — and you can sometimes get a fantastic discount off the usual price by buying multiple thread spools together. If you can find a thread bundle that includes colors you’d use, it’s ideal to grab that instead of buying individual spools.
For example, if you need a variety of light pinks, flesh tones and neutral colors like soft white, off white, bone, sand, seashell, deep ecru and pale peach, you can save $23.04 by buying this thread storage box kit that includes 26 spools of light flesh-toned thread colors.
The Verdict: I Recommend Sulky 40 Wt Rayon Thread to Other Crafters (But NOT FOR SEWING PATCHWORK!)
This thread’s smooth, lustrous texture, its vibrant color palette and its widespread availability make it a popular choice with quilting and embroidery enthusiasts.
Where to Buy Sulky 40 Wt Rayon Thread
- You can buy this thread directly from the manufacturer’s website; they ship to the USA and internationally, and from what I’ve seen, they have the broadest selection of Sulky thread colors, weights and fibers. They also carry a broad selection of stabilizers, sewing kits and sewing supplies.
You can shop for Sulky rayon thread spools individually HERE.
If you feel overwhelmed with all the possible color choices, you might wish to start by checking out this beginner’s machine embroidery kit, which includes a selection of thread plus stabilizers and other supplies you need to get started with machine embroidery. - If you’d prefer to have one-stop shopping for thread and other types of mixed media art and craft supplies, you can click here to check out the Sulky rayon thread inventory at Joggles. Joggles is stocking a very limited color selection in the 250-yard spools, but at the time I just checked (on 4-7-2026), they had an amazingly low price for the colors they were carrying. So if you’re hoping you won’t overspend on your thread, you can check to see if any of their available colors would work for the projects you have in mind. Plus, While you’re there, you can also grab threads you may need from other manufacturers plus other things like fabric, fibers and ribbon. and more.
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