Thread picking up color from garment in monogram

[YDCustom]

So, I'm doing a white monogram on blue towels for one of our clients. She claims that the towel color is showing through the embroidery. Does anyone know any tips for helping to prevent this?

The original towels had a layer of solvy under the embroidery. I tried using a layer of wash away backing instead of solvy but that made the monogram too "patch like" for the customer's taste. I've already got the density at 3.3 and I don't think I can go much denser without running into the "patchlike" issue again. I've been using satin stitch and my widest column is .375" while my narrowest is .125".

[gcannon]

I always use 2 pieces of heavywieght tear-away & solvy on top. The tear away will be tough in the beginning, but should soften up with a couple of washings.

[Five Point Emb]

I put a layer of tearaway down first. After the machine sews the outline, I carefully tear the underlay off. The edges will be covered by the final stitching. Good luck,
Darlene Duseberg
Five Point Embroidery
Perrysburg, OH

[signman]

Your customer has to realize that nothing is going to prevent the 'patch like' feel needed to keep blue from showing through the white. If the lettering is large enough, you can duplicate it and change the bottom copy to a double underlay, zigzag and then a 20-30 density fill, then your lettering at 3.3 on top. Without a really dense underlayment to mat down the towel loft, the threads (white) are going to spread apart and show the blue underneath. She can't have it both ways-no patch feel and solid color on top...fact of life with towels!

[GF]

This is where a little information about the difference between thread on fabric and ink on paper comes into play. C'mon, if we could figure out how to keep the white towel fabric loops from spewing through the blue thread and still look like quality embroidery, we could probably engineer a cap for the oil spill.

[Rod or Sharon]

What size is the monogram?

If it were a large monogram, then you can do a light crosshatch fill underneath. However, I am thinking you are talking smaller.

I am in agreement with some of the others. A good tearaway stabilizer and Solvy on top hooped nice and taut. As for clarification, Solvy is a washaway topping. Usually the shrinkage of the towel after it is washed will draw the embroidery in enough that there should not be any little threads poking through. Now, there is one other thing you can try. It has never been discussed on this group before but I have used it years ago in my early home embroidery. You can take something like clear drycleaner bags (we actually used the clear bread liners) and use in place of Solvy. It doesn't dissolve. However, I don't know what will happen to it over time with a warm/hot clothes dryer??? Just another idea...
Sharon

[Barbara Bunker]

Can't you change from satin to a fill stitch with a double underlay? I stopped embroidering satin letters on towels a long time ago.

Barb in Broomfield, CO

[YDCustom]

Thank you everyone for the ideas. This is one of those wonderful circumstances where I'm dealing with a customer who is dead certain that they know more about what is and isn't possible in embroidery than I do but she has the $$$$ to order a couple thousand dollars of towels at a time so I do what I can to make her happy. I'm going to test some of your suggestions on one of the already unacceptable towels and see if I can find something that be an acceptable compromise between color and softness. In the meantime, I'd love to keep hearing more suggestions, as I feel certain that I'll have a few more rounds to go before I get something that everyone agrees on.

Wouldn't it just be great if I could convince her to change the color of the monogram?!

[Shuffletown Embroidery]

There's a product from my home-embroidery days called Dry Cover-Up from Hoop-It-All. It claims to be for this very purpose. I have used it only once and it seemed to work OK.
Mary

[Shuffletown Embroidery]

I just found it. They now call it Fabric Cover. Here's the link.

http://www.hoopitall.com/product/productview/action/list/frmEntityType/stabilizer_Group/frmCategoryMappingId/115/

Mary

[gcannon]

Barbara has a great idea- from satin to "(medium) light fill"- using the other ideas from above- you CAN achieve this goal & get the $- experiment & try! Let us know!

[YDCustom]

Well, I've tried a bunch of these options and they have indeed solved any show through that was happening. Unfortunately, the monogram still looks blue-ish due to reflection coming in from the sides. I'm afraid that at this point I'm going to have to tell the customer that this is the best I can do. I'll also offer her a discount, just to keep her coming back!

[Five Point Emb]

You solved the problem and your customer came up with yet another complaint? Hmmmm. Try this technique on a scrap piece of towel. On your computer screen, outline close to the edge of your monogram a fill. Adjust the density to 15. Move it up so it sews first. Sew this fill with a color that matches the towel. Then sew your monogram. This will knock down the towel nap close to the lettering so MAYBE the 'reflection' will be lessened. Again I wish you good luck.
Darlene Duseberg
Five Point Embroidery
Perrysburg, OH

[Gabi Kat]

Have you tryied a matt white thread to stop the reflection?

[YDCustom]

We're using Gutermann Mara which is a semi-matte thread. Company regs (I'm a department withing a big, fancy linens company) prohibit anything any more matte. The thread itself isn't reflective so much but the color sort of glows off the towel and into the thread - same as if you have a colored paper next to a white one and the light hits...

I will have to try out the outline idea. It will be a test of my digitizing skills, for sure!