The notorious DMC Machine Embroidery Thread Situation... | ||
We have had many questions regarding using the same thread we use to stitch most of our design models. A few months ago, DMC made the decision to eliminate over half of the original 250 colors of their DMC Art. 237 Cotton 50 Machine Embroidery Thread. They have reduced their line to 125 solid colors plus 10 variegated colors. We have been struggling to find a solution to this situation. PLEASE NOTE: You may be able to still find colors for a limited time that DMC has eliminated. DMC Cotton 50 is a perfect thread for cross stitch because of its well-shaded color families. By eliminating so many of their colors, almost half of the DMC colors we list in our PDF Color Stop Listing files are no longer readily available. We have therefore spent countless hours trying to match DMC to more readily available thread lines. We have created a new PDF file, available on our website, that now lists matches of the DMC colors used in our designs to colors in the following thread brands: | Mettler Art 240 Cotton 60 I also have had a couple of reports from stitchers that my Sulky color match numbers were not particularly correct, so I have just completed rematching all of the DMC colors, that we list in our PDF Color Stop Listing files, to the actual Sulky color spools. The Sulky color numbers are all available. Some shops may not have every single Sulky color listed. These colors are most likely the newest colors that Sulky has added to their line which some shops do not yet carry. Please note that the colors listed in our Thread Matching Report file are only those used in our designs to date. | |
To download our most current Color Matches Report PDF file, Click Here... | ||
Other Online Thread Sources... | ||
| Web of Thread website This website has many wonderfully different threads. They have Madeira Polyneon and Madeira Tanne Cotton in 30 and 50 wt, in addition to carrying all of the Sulky colors. They also have many other specialty threads like Silk threads from YLI and "Cotton Look" Polyester threads from Valdani. | ||
Two Alternative Cotton Thread Brands for Cross Stitch... | ||
| One of the main reasons that our cross stitch designs look so much like hand stitched cross stitch, is that we have stitched them with cotton thread. The softer qualities of cotton thread are perfect for machine cross stitch. Even with good color matching to rayon threads, pieces stitched with rayon thread will not appear with quite the subtle shading between colors, that is possible with cotton thread that is designed for good shading values within a color family. There are two other cotton threads that we have worked with that can be used to fill in "missing" DMC colors, if a color we call out in our PDF files is no longer available. | ||
| Aurifil Cotton Mako 50... | Mettler Art 240 Cotton 60 Thread... | |
This cotton thread is slightly heavier than DMC. This thread, relatively new on the market is from Italy. We intend to stitch an upcoming collection entirely in this thread. While the color shading ranges are not as full as DMC, this range has some wonderful slightly different color families. Aurifil Cotton Mako has a fairly good color range of 158 solid colors and about 10 variegated ones. It is slightly thicker than DMC's 50 wt thread. The link below will take you to the shopping page for Aurifil Cotton Mako 50, where they also have color cards to view and order. | Another alternative is to use Mettler Cotton 60 wt machine embroidery thread colors to replace any DMC numbers you cannot find. This cotton thread is a little bit lighter in weight than DMC Cotton 50. It also has different color ranges. It mixes in well with DMC and we even call out a few Mettler Cotton colors in some of our designs. An online source for Mettler Cotton 60 is Uncommon Threads. The link below will take you to their shopping page for Metter Article 240 thread. | |