Yesterday I was considering doing some embroidery in red thread. It was Presencia brand perle, which I have not used before. So before I even put it anywhere near the white fabric I was going to use, I wanted to test its colourfastness (or “colorfastness” for those who prefer to spell it that way!)
I found a small piece of white fabric, cut myself a length of the red thread, and liberally wet them both until they were both completely wet. Probably soaking them both for a few hours would have been good too, but I knew that if I did that, I’d probably forget to take them out to dry, and I wanted to know the answer sooner rather than later!
I put the wet red thread on the wet white fabric and left it there to dry in the bathroom. The idea is that if any coloured thread is going to bleed, red is probably one of the most likely. In the evening, my younger daughter came out to me with it in her hands and said “Mum, you left this in the bathroom.”
Ah yes, thank you! It was dry and there was NO hint of any bleeding. Very nice to know.
The thread had been curled up in the centre of the fabric. I've moved it aside and you can see there is no bleeding.
And in the meantime I decided not to use red thread anyway, but at least now I know!
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
isn’t embroidery thread supposed to be colourfast as a rule? i’ve never even thought to test it. i have an enormous red project on the go. there would be weeping and nasty letters if the colour ran.
No, I would not trust that all embroidery thread is colourfast. Especially with a colour like red, I wouldn’t trust it. Overdyed and strongly coloured threads would probably be the main ones that would concern me.
I sincerely hope that there is no need for any weeping at your place. I suspect that it WILL be ok, if that counts for anything…