How much embroidery floss do I need?
Usually less than you would think, and one skein of each colour is often enough.
What is in a skein
A DMC stranded cotton skein is 8 metres (8.7 yards) of six strands. Stitching with two strands, you get three two-strand threads from every length you cut, so one skein goes a long way.
How far one skein goes
As a rough guide, one skein covers somewhere around 1,500 to 2,000 full cross stitches on 14-count using two strands. The real figure depends on your tension, how far you carry thread on the back and how often you start and stop.
Smaller counts use more thread per stitch and larger counts less, because the stitch itself is bigger or smaller.
Our floss key does the counting
Every pattern here lists each DMC colour with how many stitches it covers and how many skeins to buy, already rounded up. Take the list to a shop or order the exact numbers online.
If you are stitching the same colour across a large area, buy an extra skein from the same dye lot, because shades can vary slightly between batches.
