The Upholstery Forum

I am posting this in the General section, as it is a general question about color combinations, even though the application is for my boat upholstery that I am currently doing.

I have red vinyl and will be doing some top stitching. I want to use a contrasting thread, but I'm not sure black thread really looks good against red vinyl. I see a lot of red thread with black vinyl, but not the opposite.
. .
My choices for thread are . . .

BLACK
RED
Light GRAY

Thoughts?

FWIW - I have been doing Lt.Gray top stitching with my white/gray seats. The boat has black top stitching with light gray and white vinyl, and I will be using the same in those areas.

I did use some red top-stitching with some Dark Gray trim pieces. Just not sure how a dark thread goes with a red vinyl.

Here is what I am working with . . .
. .
The gray panel is the original and the red is the new skin without top-stitching and loosely fit on the cushion. . . Also the stitching samples for reference.

Maybe the light gray would go well with the embroidery. The red is probably too neutral . . . not sure about the black

Here is a boat seat from a project last year i did with black top stitching over red. If you use a 135 thread it'll help bring it out more. It's all about what you end up liking or the customer likes.

Thanks @Matt Hamblin . . . Are these the seats to the Baja boat that you had some seam tearing after they were installed? (just wondering how that turned out)

The red piece that I'm working with is a backrest 'insert' that is the center piece of a larger backrest. The surrounding cushions will be primarily gray.

I think what I will do is the perimeter top-stitching in red and then the french seam (across the 'top') in black as the surrounding gray cushions will have black french seams.

@TedP
Yes it is. I guess i got lucky cause the customer got a really good offer at a marina they were at after it was all done. They ended up selling the boat so i don't know if I'll see it again or not.

I like to do several test pieces with different arrangements of colors. I've done white on red, black on red and red on red. I think they all have pros and cons cosmetically so i don't think you can go wrong. But if you haven't already that is one way to visualize the finished product and pick the one you like best.

And by test pieces i mean with the different style seams combined with the top stitch.

Does the boat have any other colors in the decals or any logos anywhere? For example on the side of the boat it has a decal that red with grey accents you could use grey stitching. I like the black stitching also.

Here is the boat with the original seating. I am adding the red to the center sections of the backrests and some of the trim pieces.
. .

I'll be going for more of this color combination . . .
. .

In some pictures that I've been able to find on the web, it looks like the french seam along the top of the backrests is in black, regardless of the red or gray vinyl.

Its really all up to your taste. Personally I usually try to stick to 3 colors in the design. Sometimes 4. It looks like the embroidered logo is white and grey and I'm guessing the boat gel coat color is white? I would probably go with a contrast of white or grey.

If you look at most themes in boats and cars the designers tend to stick with 3-4 colors on the entire car or boat. Typically I like to have 2 main colors and one highlight color that stands out.

When I want my top stitching to stand out I go to a 138 thread on top (normally run a 92) and increase the stitch length, that way it seems to really make the contrasting color pop.

Just following up on this question . . .

I did the border top-stitching in the like color to the vinyl. So, red-red, gray-gray, etc.

I did the french seam stitching in black only. The results look fine. (to me)

It would benefit from the heavier thread (138), but I'm making due with the regular Tenara (92) thread