Last updated on January 6th, 2023 at 02:23 am
Lily Mills was formed in Shelby, North Carolina in 1903 as the Lily Mill and Power Company by John Schenck. On July 16, 1934, the company changed its name to Lily Mills Company. Lily Mills marketed and/or produced a huge variety of products from sewing thread to thick weaving filler, carpet warp, mercerized crochet thread, worsted weight yarns, and much, much more.
Lily Mills funded and supported weaving education at the Penland School of Crafts which continues to teach the art of weaving to this day in the Lily Loom House. In 1964, the Lily Mills Knitting Club (sponsored by Lily Mills) appeared at the World’s Fair in New York City and the 1967 EXPO in Montreal, Canada.
At its height, Lily Mills was the second largest thread and yarn company in the United States (possibly the world?), with only Coats & Clarks selling more.
Lily Mills Company and Belding Hemingway Company (previously known as Belding & Corticelli) merged in 1960.
Hendersonville News-Times: The Belding Heminway Company, Inc, and the Lily Mills Company have announced that agreement has been reached on the terms of merging these two leading manufacturers and marketers of sewing thread […] The Lily Mills Company will continue […] as a wholly owned subsidiary of Belding Heminway Company, Inc. The Lily name will be retained.”
The Shelby mill stopped producing and shipping products in 1981 and then fully shut down in 1983.
Lily Mills Thread and Sample Cards from the early to mid 1950s
In September 2022, I acquired off of eBay a big bag of yarn color sample cards that’s an absolute treasure-trove (to me!) of thread, cord and yarns used in the 1950s. I’m not sure but I think these came out of an old weaving supplies store. The pièce de résistance – and the reason I just spent $30 for what is literally a bag of paper and yarn scraps, lol – is the vintage Lily Mill’s thread and yarn size and color sample cards. While I’m still working on reasonably precisely dating the sample cards I display below, I believe they are all from some point between 1940 and 1955. I display them below in roughly smallest to largest size. None are older than 1956. As I am in physical possession of these, feel free to ask me questions about them!
Lily Mills Article 214, Lily Mercerized Warp or Weft
Lily Mills Article 214, “Mercerized Cotton Yarns”
I believe this was widely marketed as “Daisy Mercerized Crochet Cotton” and “Lily Mercrochet Cotton”.
Lily Mills Article 305, Metallic Yarns
I’m stunned at how shiny and bright these 70ish year old metallic thread samples are – much more reflective than they look in the picture! There’s three sizes/types on the card. The 1/64 size is a flat and narrow thread; it a lot like Christmas tree tinsel except narrower and stronger feeling. The Guimpe thread has what appears to be a thin cotton core with the metallics wrapped around the core. The variegated is what appears to be a cotton core twisted with the metallics. The 1/64 and Guimpe look practically brand new despite their age!
Lily Mills Three Strand, Article 714
Pictured is Color 7, Cream, in a 2 ounce tube. Back of label says “Size 10/3”. This feels very similar to modern day crochet thread but it feels a bit fuzzier, feels like it’s not mercerized but the tubes I’ve found state mercerized on the label. It is virtually identical to modern size 5 crochet thread; larger than size 10 but smaller than size 3 current crochet thread.
I have two cards for Article 714; the second card (below) definitely is newer than the above card; I would guess by maybe 2-5 years newer. It has one additional color – K-43 Rose
Lily Mills “Homespun Yarns” Lamb’s Wool, Suiting Yarn and Tweed Yarn, Article Numbers 150-L, 150-S and 150-T
These yarn samples vary in size but are between pearl/perle cotton size 3 and size 5. All of them have a loose twist. These yarn samples are quite fragile and have deteriorated quite a bit so I wasn’t able to untangle them/straighten them out much in order to take this scan as some of them were literally falling apart with even light handling.
Lily Mills Carpet Warp, Article 414
This feels somewhat coarser than modern day embroidery floss and is a bit thicker than embroidery floss.
I have two cards for Article 414; the second card appears slightly newer (I’d guess within 1-3 years) and has additional/new colors of 62 Emerald and 79 Gold.
Lily Mills Linen Warp and Weft Yarns, Article 107 Warp Yarns, Article 2017 Weft Yarns
Lily Mills Article 314, Lily Unmercerized Cotton Warp Yarn
Lily Hand Weaving Cottons Article 914
Six strand filler, soft twist, size 20/6, 2 ounce tube pictured in color 1460. This feels very similar to modern day embroidery floss but is a bit thinner than embroidery floss. I have two of these cards; the second one appears to be slightly newer (maybe 1-3 years) than the first card pictured below.
Lily Mills Article 108, “Soft-twist Unmercerized Cotton”
This is very similar in size to modern day crochet thread size 3 (such as Red Heart “Fashion 3”) and pearl/perle cotton size 3 but has a noticeably looser twist.
Lily Mills Article 1114, Navy Cord
This is more a cord than a thread or yarn; it has virtually no stretch to it at all and seems to have some sort of light smooth coating/finish to it. It’s larger than modern perle/pearl cotton size 5. It reminds me of waxed cord often used in sewing leather. I believe Lily Mills Navy Cord originally was sold as wound balls and later on was wound on tubes, but I’m not certain (yet). Could be the tubes are contemporary with the wound balls or older than the wound balls. I have two Navy Cord sample cards pictured below. I suspect based on the print quality, placement in the pile of Lily Mill’s cards and condition, the second card is somewhat newer than the first card printed; maybe 1 to 3 years newer.
Lily Mills Article 110, “Weaving Wool for Hand Weaving”
This yarn seems to be slightly smaller to same size as modern sock/fingering yarn.
Lily Mills Article 140, Nylkara Hand Weaving Yarns
This yarn, which is very close in size, twist and feel to modern-day sock/fingering yarns, was made out of 50% nylon and 50% Vicara fibers. Vicara was a trade/brand name for zein fibers, which were regenerated protein fibers made from corn/maize and was sold under the name of Vicara from 1948 to 1957.
Lily Article 120, Hand Weaving Sports Yarn
This yarn is most equivalent to a modern day sock or fingering yarn in size, feel, texture, etcetera.
Lily Mills Article 105, “Novelty Yarns” (bouclé)
This is a bouclé yarn, but I don’t know (yet) if it was marketed as bouclé. Size 1 is somewhat thinner than typical modern worsted weight/medium yarns, bit thicker than typical modern fingering weight yarns. It very closely resembles Lion Brand Baby Soft Boucle Yarn in size but seems be more tightly looped.
The second sample card I have for Article 105 appears to be a few years (I’d guess 1-3 years) newer than the above card, and it lists 5 more colors than the above card.
Lily Mills Article 130, Lily Knitting Worsted
This year is essentially identical to modern-day worsted weight/medium yarn in thickness, twist, feel, etcetera.
Lily Mills Article 1014, Hand Weaving Cottons Four Strand Filler
This is a cotton yarn that is virtually identical in size, twist, feel, softness and drape to modern day worsted weight/medium cotton yarn; it matches identically to my big cones of Lily brand “Sugar ‘n Cream” and Peaches & Creme cotton yarn that are both pretty widely available in big box craft and discount stores – Walmart carries a nice color selection of Peaches & Creme.
The second sample card for Article 1014 appears to be a few years (maybe 2-5 years) newer than the above card.
Lily Mills Article 106, Chenille Yarns
This yarn sample card shows Lily Mills’ chenille yarn in three different sizes. The “6 cut” size is thicker than modern day worsted weight/medium yarn but a bit thinner than the Red Heart Sweet Home chenille yarn I have stashed in my craft room. It’s very, very close to but not quite a modern day bulky yarn in thickness, but it’s likely my sample card’s yarn has compressed over the last 70ish years so I think modern bulky yarn or the Red Heart Sweet Home chenille yarn would be a very good equivalency. The “12 cut” size is quite thick, similar to modern super bulky or perhaps even jumbo size yarn. The “12-cut” size is thin, somewhere between a fingering/sock yarn and a DK/light worsted yarn.
Lily Mills Article 814, Rug Weave Yarn
This yarn is most equivalent to modern-day bulky, chunky, or rug yarn sizes.
Lily Mills Article 614, Rug Filler
This yarn is really thick, likely most equivalent to modern super bulky yarns although might be slightly thicker or slightly thinner; it’s hard to tell for certain since the yarn on the sample card is kind of squished down some. I typed the yarn numbers and colors onto the image as the yarn is so thick (and squished) it covers the yarn names and numbers!
1960s
Lily Mills Article 114, “Yarnselector Palette”, Pearl Cotton
I really am not sure of the date of this Lily Mills pearl cotton “Yarnselector Palette”, but for now, I’m dating this to the 1960s until I can research further. It contains the full color lineup of Lily Mills’ pearl/perle cotton yarn, along with one each of the available thread sizes (the five blue threads on the left in the photo below). This thing is too big to scan in one piece so below, I have two photographs and a spliced-together scan of the yarn palette to make the color numbers more readable.
Lily Mills Article 65 (skeins), Article 97 (balls) Daisy Mercerized Crochet Cotton
Pictured to the left is pansy color in size 30. I’m tentatively dating the below sample card to the 1940s as the printing and card layout differs significantly from the yarn sample cards I have that I know are from the 1950s; however, it’s also quite possible this card dates to the 1960s. I’m somewhat certain that Lily yarn sample cards from the 1940s had rounded corners, which is why I’m not confident this dates to the 1940s, but I also have seen the use of red Lily logo on cards from the 1940s. Maybe this is really from the 1950s 🙂 The sample card image is from ebay user Book_Sourceror.
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