I'm thinking ahead to my next project and I would like to try using two different colour fleeces on the face. Obviously when using one colour fabric I match my cotton/thread to that fabric. My question is if one colour of fleece is dark and the other light, which colour thread/cotton should I use or try to match up?

If you want to try it, I was told by a seamstress to always use grey thread, it pretty much blends with anything...

If you want to try it, I was told by a seamstress to always use grey thread, it pretty much blends with anything...

Daryl once said that I think in his BlogTV sessions on puppet making.

I haven't done this much, but sometimes when I've got two colours I just pick one of them for the thread and get as close as I can to a colour match. The truth is if you hide your stitches well enough, nobody should see much of the thread colour anyway; and if so, it doesn't matter because it still matches at least one half of your colour scheme.

I have however, used a different *hue* when using more than one colour. I'm doing this at the moment, although not for a puppet but for some graphic design. I have at most four or five colours, but am using some different hues of two of them to add some contrast to things I want to highlight. (This goes into some stuff on using colours and hues: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/06/17/the-process-behind-good-illustration-part-2/)  So for example, a plushie I made recently is brown fabric, silver and white beading. I used a brown thread to sew it, but it's just a slightly lighter shade than my fabric. It blends in far better than if I'd used silver or white cotton thread to sew up the sides of the plushie, but because I couldn't exactly colour match with what I had, it also doesn't look horribly out of place.

There's no right answer though...

Yep grey is always a good default.  Like Na said your stitches should be hidden anyway so should not matter. Now if you are doing some type of stitching that is going to show like in applique, then you simply need to choose a color that suites the situation. It may be you want to apply red circles to a face like on a clown face. In this case you may decide you want to use black simply so it looks like an outline.

You could also try some invisible thread. I would veer away from the spools that feel like fishing line. I tend to use the Coats and Clark Polyester, but here's a link with a few different brands.

I'd check your local craft/sewing store to see what they have in stock. If you do go with the nylon filament type, I would strongly suggest hand sewing over machine.

Good luck, whichever path you choose!

Thank you all for your responses. This is very helpful information.  The puppet maybe a small while off yet, but when I get it going I will post some photos to show the results.

If you are machine sewing, use one color on the bobbin and the other color as the top stitch. I use invisible thread on the machine too.  Hand stitching, match either color fabric and you will be ok.