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                                                                     EXHIBIT 5.1
 
                                                                JANUARY 30, 1998
 
Worldtex, Inc.
212 12th Avenue, N.E.
Hickory, North Carolina 28601
 
Ladies & Gentlemen:
 
     We have acted as counsel to Worldtex, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the
"Company"), in connection with the Registration Statement on Form S-4 filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities Act of 1933, as
amended (the "Act"), (the "Registration Statement"), relating to the proposed
offer by the Company to exchange its 9 5/8% Series B Senior Notes due 2007 (the
"New Notes") for its outstanding 9 5/8% Series A Senior Notes due 2007 (the "Old
Notes"), of which $175,000,000 aggregate principal amount is outstanding (the
"Exchange Offer").
 
     In connection with this opinion letter, we have examined: the Registration
Statement, including the Prospectus which forms a part of the Registration
Statement, the Indenture, dated as of December 1, 1997 (the "Indenture"), among
the Company, the subsidiary guarantors named therein (the "Guarantors") and IBJ
Schroder Bank & Trust Company, as trustee, the forms of Old Note and New Note,
each attached as an exhibit to the Indenture, and originals, or copies certified
or otherwise identified to our satisfaction, of such other documents, records,
instruments and certificates of public officials as we have deemed necessary or
appropriate to enable us to render this opinion. In addition, we have assumed:
(i) that all signatures are genuine, (ii) that all documents submitted to us as
originals are genuine, (iii) that all copies submitted to us conform to the
originals, (iv) the Indenture has been duly authorized, executed and delivered
by the Trustee and is a legal, valid, binding and enforceable agreement of the
Trustee and (v) the Old Notes and the guaranties endorsed thereon and created
under the Indenture (the "Old Guaranties") were duly and validly executed and
delivered by the Company and the Guarantors and that the Old Notes were duly and
validly authenticated by the Trustee pursuant to the terms of the Indenture.
 
     We are members of the bar of the State of New York, and the opinion set
forth below is restricted to matters controlled by federal laws, the laws of the
State of New York and the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware.
 
     Based on the foregoing, it is our opinion that, when (1) the applicable
provisions of the Act and such "Blue Sky" or other state securities laws as may
be applicable shall have been complied with and (ii) New Notes with the
guaranties of the Guarantors endorsed thereon (the "New Guaranties"), in the
form included as an Exhibit to the Indenture, have been duly executed and
authenticated in accordance with the Indenture and duly issued and delivered by
the Company and the Guarantors in exchange for an equal principal amount of Old
Notes and related Old Guaranties pursuant to the terms of the Exchange Offer,
such New Notes will constitute legal, valid, binding and enforceable obligations
of the Company and the New Guaranties will constitute legal, valid, binding and
enforceable obligations of the Guarantors, subject to (i) limitations imposed by
bankruptcy, reorganization, moratorium, insolvency, fraudulent conveyance,
fraudulent transfer, preferential transfer and other laws of general application
relating to or affecting the enforceability of creditors' rights and to general
principles of equity, including, without limitation, laches and estoppel as
equitable defenses, concepts of materiality, reasonableness, good faith and fair
dealing, and considerations of impracticability or impossibility or performance
and defenses based upon unconscionability (regardless of whether such
enforceability is considered or applied in a proceeding in equity or at law) and
(b) the qualification that the remedy of specific performance and injunctive and
other forms of equitable relief may be subject to equitable defenses and to the
discretion of the court before which any proceeding therefor may be brought.
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     We hereby consent to the filing of this opinion as an exhibit to the
Registration Statement and to the reference to our name under the caption "Legal
Matters" in the Registration Statement. In giving this consent, we do not
thereby admit that we are in the category of persons whose consent is required
under Section 7 of the Act or the rules and regulations of the Securities and
Exchange Commission thereunder.
 
                                          Very truly yours,
 
                                          /s/ Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP