Tiger Thread Now In The Us

[jackd942]

Oh interesting JoeSnuffie...I've never seen that at my local Tandy (Atlanta)...at least I don't think so. I've tried the "waxed Nylon Thread" (It is ok but tears my hands up) and the Tejas Waxed thread (did not like it one bit WAY too much wax)..as well as the plain nylon thread (way too thin)....but haven't seen what you are showing there, do you have a SKU # for it? I'll look next trip I go, and that seems to be quite often ;-)

tigertlee - I haven't seen it either, but it is listed as braided cord on their website...searching for thread does not pull it up. For a gold club member it is $4.80 for a 25 yd spool, so ~500m would run over $100 if my math is correct. At least by buying in the small spools...I did not see a large spool listed.

Edited March 9, 2014 by jackd942

[cem]

No there isn't any large spool for the Tandy braided cord, I enquired about it a year ago as I needed a larger amount of a colour that wasn't available in Tiger (Turquoise) none of the other braided thread manufacturers had it either and Tandy ended up discontinueing that colour anyway so I made do with dyeing some Tiger which worked out fine.

The main difference between Tiger and the Tandy braided cord is that Tiger has a smaller tighter braid. Out of all the other braided thread available, Mox from Paskals in Australia is probably the closest in looks and feel to Tiger.

[FoamerAce]

You dyed Tiger thread? So it's linen then. For some reason I thought it was nylon.

[cem]

No, Tiger is polyester and it is possible to dye it though most will tell you that you can't. If your interested I can put up some photos of the custom colours I have done.

[CountryStyle]

Ludlow is also selling 1.5" veg tan strips for $7 each. IMO that is a pretty darn good deal! I ordered some.

[tiggertlee]

No, Tiger is polyester and it is possible to dye it though most will tell you that you can't. If your interested I can put up some photos of the custom colours I have done.

I would love to see how this is done and your results!!!

[FoamerAce]

No, Tiger is polyester and it is possible to dye it though most will tell you that you can't. If your interested I can put up some photos of the custom colours I have done.

I would love to see how this is done and your results!!!

As would I. I was one of the opinion that it was not possible to dye polyester with acceptable results.

[King's X]

I have been using the John James needles for about 2 years now. I really like them and they last quite a long time. Longer than Tandy's.

[JoeSnuffie]

I have been using the John James needles for about 2 years now. I really like them and they last quite a long time. Longer than Tandy's.

I started using them a couple months ago and they are superior to the Tandy needles and anything I've gotten at the fabric store.

[cem]

I would love to see how this is done and your results!!!

As would I. I was one of the opinion that it was not possible to dye polyester with acceptable results.

Sorry it’s taken a little while to get back to you been flat out this week trying to get some stuff done.

Anyhow here you go these are just small test pieces I usually do these before dyeing whole sewing strands of about 5ft

From left to right emerald green, purple, mid grey, navy blue, royal blue, orange, mahogany & magenta in 1.2mm size

Some of these colours are available from Abbey but not in the 1.2mm size which I use the most, the original thread colour was white.

Turquoise and gold in 1mm size

These two colours aren't available at all in Tiger, original thread colour was silver grey as I had run out of white but its light enough not to really make a difference.

They might look a bit uneven but they aren't in person, the unevenness is due to my scanner

Now the process to do it isn't hard but can be messy and is more time consuming than dyeing linen.

1. Get a fairly longish plastic container pour the colour dye you want into it.

2. Make large loops of your thread (dependant on length of your container)

3. Place into dye bath and leave a few minutes

4. Remove thread from dye bath place on paper towel and let dry for ten minutes.

5. Wearing disposable gloves unravel the thread and run your fingers down it you will notice that a bit of wax residue comes off this is normal and is what you want to happen, you will notice that the colour isn't even at the moment so with that.

6. Re loop the thread and place back into dye bath for another five minutes then repeat first part of step 4 then leave to dry for at least an hour.

7. Unravel thread and run your fingers down it again to redistribute and seal the wax.

If it is still uneven you may need to do another dip some colours do take better than others this is mostly a trial and error thing so make sure you write notes down if you want to replicate the same colour.

I don't use the thread until the next day just to make sure it's completely dry. Now for what dye or pigment to use, the mahogany shown above is Fiebings oil dye, the navy blue is Fiebings water based the mid grey is Craftsha water based and the rest are Art Spectrum pigment ink which is also water based.

Now for the important part with the water based stuff you need to add a bit of methylated spirits ( US = denatured alcohol) to get the colours to absorb into the thread otherwise it won't work.

The Art Spectrum pigment ink is an Australian brand so I'm not sure if it is available overseas but I expect FW ink would work as well. I plan on doing a test with that but it won't be for a little a while as I have a bit of work to get through first.

I mostly use the Art Spectrum ink as they are more lightfast compared to the leather dyes, I put an example of the gold on a window sill for six months and it has probably dropped only a quarter shade whereas the leather dye was three quarters gone.

I would love to be able to get some of these colours directly from Abbey or Julius Koch and although I use a fair bit of thread it's not enough to get custom colours made up.

Like I said before its not hard just time consuming, if you’re still interested let me know and I will do up and take some photos of some new sewing examples. As I can’t show what I have at the moment as they have personal details on them and I don’t have the clearance to show them at the moment.

Hope this helps if you want to have a go at it yourself