Introduction
Over the course of time we collect a number of skeins and oddments of stranded cotton. Whether these are all from one brand or some from both the major brands, Anchor and DMC, to be able to use them would be wonderful. Although both of these companies produce their own conversion charts, only on about half of the shades do they agree with each other and they give no indication as to how good a match the alternative colour would be. As a completley independent needlework studio, we have been able to make our own judgements and have used our own conversions for some time.

How do I use the cotton converter?
Enter each shade in the text box. Make a vertical list, pressing 'Enter' after each shade. You can input letters as well as numbers. When you have entered your list of shades, click either of the buttons: 'Convert Anchor to DMC' or 'Convert DMC to Anchor'.

A table will be displayed with the conversion results.

• The first column gives the shade name.
• The second column gives the original shade.
• The third column gives the alternative shade.
• The fourth column gives an indication of how close the match is (see below for more details).

If there are many shades listed they will be displayed on multiple pages; click on the white page numbers at the bottom of the table to navigate between the pages.

An equivalent is given for each and every shade in both Anchor and DMC. If no equivalent is returned and the Caution column displays 'Not found' then it means the shade entered does not exist. Check you have entered the shade correctly.

What is the 'Caution' column?
The fourth column, the Caution column, gives and indication of how good the match is with a series of stars:

• No stars means that the shades may not be identical but are a good match.
• One star means that the shades are a fairly good match.
• Two stars mean that they are a poor match but generally useable.
• Three stars means that the alternative is a very poor match but the nearest there is.

Why is there more than one alternative shade for some colours?
For some colours we may give two possible alternatives. This is because neither is a perfect match. Using one strand of each of them together in the needle will often give a better match. Or, if you prefer, look at the design you are converting and make a judgement of how well one or the other shades fits with the others in the design.

What if many of the matches are poor matches?
If the design you are converting comes up with many shades that fall into the poor or very poor categories, don't necessarily discard them but look at each against the picture of the design and try to judge the difference it will make to it. Your embroidery may still be successful but may differ very much from the original. If in doubt - especially for a large design for which you will probably need to buy new thread anyway - it is safer to work the design in the same brand as the original.

Can I use different brands of stranded cotton together in one piece of embroidery?
Yes, both DMC and Anchor produce excellent quality threads and, for stranded cotton, there is only a minute difference in the thickness. Ideally you should use the same brand for all major areas with the second brand used only for occasional stitches in a contrasting colour. Small designs using many colours where none of them is very critical should work particulary well and use up many of those oddments for you.

Close Window

The work of composing this conversion chart took a very great deal of time. It is strictly protected by copyright, Creative Crafts Publishing Ltd. 2001.