Keeping The Stitching White...........?

[Bluesman]

I am working on some small projects practicing stitching on my Cobra 4. To date I made some coasters using drum dyed 8/9 with a 2/3 backing and the stitching stayed clean. I made up two CC holders one dyed saddle tan (oil) and the other mahogany (regular spirit). The pieces dyed for two days and then I rubbed them down until no more dye was coming off. I finished them with a mixture of bees wax and Neastfoot oil, hand rubbed with a heat gun. Again they dried for a day and I rubbed them down again. At this point I glued on some 2/3 lining and then the two pockets. These sat over night to dry. Today I trimmed them up, sanded the edges and laid out a stitch line. I used some 138 white with a #23 needle and the machine set for a 4mm stitch length. Aside from the fact I need to work on my corners, on both cases the dye bled onto the thread after rubbing and finishing the edges. I have made many projects in the past, even some dyed black and had them stitched by a friend on his machine and never had this problem. What am I missing?

Thanks,

Jon

[Bluesman]

Tried it again and that worked..............Perfect.................Thanks...............

[Red Cent]

What??!!

[Bluesman]

Yup...........got no response so I get kept experimenting............Got It now...........You just got to.................

[blue duck]

Well don't keep us hanging. What did you do to get it right?

[Bluesman]

After giving this some thought I figured it was a timing issue. I took some scrap which was dyed last week, some pieces which were dyed two days ago and one of my failed coasters. I cut all of them in half and then wiped the edge with a white rag. The piece dyed last week had little to no dye residue come off. The second one dyed two days ago showed some dye coming off and the failed coaster did as well. It seems that there is residual dye in the center of the piece that is still wet. Even thought the top is dry and rubs off no dye, the center is the culprit. Until I get this timing down I'm going to dye a scrap piece along with all of my projects. This will be cut and tested to see if the dye is dry all the way through. I then sewed up the two which showed some dye on the rag and yup, dye on the thread. Hope this helps someone from ruining a good project.

[WScott]

Thanks for the tip

[electrathon]

Interesting. I would have never suspected it to still be damp after a couple days.

Aaron

[VanDutch]

what type of dye are you using... water, oil or spirit based?

[blue duck]

Thanks! That does make perfect sense. And I am sure it will save more than one project.