Hello everyone
Hope this finds you well? I am increasingly concerned as to the availability of different brands of embroidery floss – it is becoming more and more difficult to source, it seems that many of the online shops no longer stock them or in some cases have closed down, is this your experience?
This week I would like to pick your brains and get some feedback on the different brands of embroidery floss – I am referring to the six strand cotton variety such as DMC, Anchor etc which I use for Needlepainting. I am going to list the three main brands that I like to use and ask that you let me know if they are readily available in your part of the world and which ones you like to use.
Please keep in Mind that for Needlepainting we need a large range of colours so I am not referring to any smaller brands that have less then 450 colours in the range.
DMC
I have always used DMC and as far as I know it is the most popular brand worldwide, however, there are some instances where the DMC range falls short and I have to poach colours from other ranges. Generally DMC is easy to find so I do my best to use it wherever possible but Anchor & Cosmo have some beautiful in between shades that are not available in the DMC range. You can never have enough shades for Needlepainting and sometimes that specific colour needed is just not there – we can’t mix shades like we do in art so it has to be found!
ANCHOR
Anchor has certain shades such as greens, golds, violets, mauves in particular that the DMC range don’t have and quite often I need to slot in an Anchor shade or compensate where a DMC shade seems to skip from light to medium with nothing in between. Sadly, Anchor floss is no longer been manufactured in Germany and try as I might I can no longer source it, or get a reply from a distributor that is willing to ship to South Africa, so it seems I will have to discontinue this brand of thread.
COSMO LECIEN
Cosmo Lecien threads made in Japan are relatively new to the embroidery world – I have tested some of the colours and they are sublime! The floss is beautiful and silky and the colours are beautiful. I love that they include every shade in a family and don’t leave any out. I would dearly love to use them in my designs but my search online tells me that they are not easily obtainable. Do any of you use them and if so do you find them easy to source or have any suggestions as to where you can find them?
Till next time, wherever you are in the world keep smiling and happy stitching.
Trish