Thanks everyone for all the advice about picking top stitching thread for bright silver fabric! I washed a bit of the fabric, and then did some samples of the best two thread colours so far. Lefthand fabric is unwashed; top row of stitching Gutermann topstitch 40, bottom row Gutermann topstitch 38. Righthand fabric is washed; top two rows are the Gutermann 40 and the bottom row the Gutermann 38.
Rather to my surprise, the lighter thread (Gutermann 38) looks slightly better on both. The fabric has held up fairly well to washing considering I put it in with a regular wash. I’d normally wash something like this on a gentle cycle. It’s darkened and picked up a few crease marks, which is about what I expected. Not like a previous silver fabric I had where I washed it once and it came out black…
Several people suggested trying out more unexpected colours than grey and I was really tempted, but I haven’t had any spare time to visit a bricks and mortar shop with a fabric sample. And I wanted to get on with sewing the actual garment, so in the end I went with the 38. Here’s what it looks like so far.
Not my greatest ever topstitching, but you can’t unpick on this fabric at all, and it’ll look fine from a normal distance. I find going round the pocket edges on jeans at an even width is surprisingly difficult, even when I chalk a line to follow. It’s very difficult to see the chalk on the reflective surface and I resorted to using black chalk, which has rubbed off on the topstitching thread and darkened it slightly so I might as well have used the Guterman 40 after all. Oh well. I think I have enough fabric left to make a little skirt, so I might yet experiment with a pink or a purple thread!
Catherine Daze's Blog 
I have been waiting to see what you decided. It’s a good result.
Your topstitching looks perfectly fine, if I’d done that I wouldn’t take it out and I’m pretty picky, have you ever tried an edgestiching foot, I use one and never mark now, once I have the distance sorted I find it easier to be consistently even. Your thread shade gives nice definition.
Thanks! I find the edge stitching foot good for going fast on straighter lines, but I do better with a regular foot on curves. I wonder if I just haven’t found the right foot though? Mine has a very long blade which makes it hard to go round a curve.
It looks good! I always try to remind myself that no one is going to look at my topstitching from THAT close, and if someone does get close enough to spot slight wonkiness it’s probably not the stitching they’re interested in!
So brave to sew with this fabric! but your garments are always so interesting.
Your choice of 38 was spot on. And I couldn’t agree more about topstitching the curved pockets on the front of a pair of jeans.
Glad it’s not just me! I’d rather do a fly than pockets…
I liked the 38. Your topstitching looks fine to me, if there is an imperfection it must be too slight to stand out.
Hello
New to this.
What silver fabric are you speaking of?
Thanks😊
Hi Carol, it’s a stretch denim with a foil coating from Top Fabric: http://www.topfabric.co.uk/colour/metallic/foiled-stretch-denim-silver.html
Gorgeous Catherine. I’m keen to see the resulting ensemble – dress up/dress down. I had a leather jacket that was a distressed silver but just couldn’t pull it off. Though I blame Marie Kondo, because sometimes you come back to these things and fall in love again!
I know what you mean; sometimes you just need the right shoes or top and something else suddenly becomes very wearable!
Looking great so far 😃