diff --git a/Lib/test/test_threading.py b/Lib/test/test_threading.py
index ac4a010bc0c..79335eaca06 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_threading.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_threading.py
@@ -89,7 +89,12 @@ class ThreadTests(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_various_ops_small_stack(self):
         if verbose:
             print 'with 256kB thread stack size...'
-        threading.stack_size(262144)
+        try:
+            threading.stack_size(262144)
+        except thread.error:
+            if verbose:
+                print 'platform does not support changing thread stack size'
+            return
         self.test_various_ops()
         threading.stack_size(0)
 
@@ -97,7 +102,12 @@ class ThreadTests(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_various_ops_large_stack(self):
         if verbose:
             print 'with 1MB thread stack size...'
-        threading.stack_size(0x100000)
+        try:
+            threading.stack_size(0x100000)
+        except thread.error:
+            if verbose:
+                print 'platform does not support changing thread stack size'
+            return
         self.test_various_ops()
         threading.stack_size(0)
 
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 95b2d4eb3cb..04549b91955 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -53,6 +53,9 @@ Tests
 
 - Bug #1535182: really test the xreadlines() method of bz2 objects.
 
+- test_threading now skips testing alternate thread stack sizes on
+  platforms that don't support changing thread stack size.
+
 
 Documentation
 -------------