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Washable variegated floss?

Hi Everyone-

I've created a pattern of Norman, one of my pet bearded dragons. If you're interested, you can see the picture I used in my newly-created Webshots album:

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some work, I have a nice, stylized picture that will only use 8 colors of floss (DMC 726, 727, 744, 780, 781, and 3820, as well as a v. small amount of 310 and 5200). I'm quite happy with the design. After a floss toss yesterday, I chose "Light Mocha" (Cashel linen, 28 ct) as the fabric.

The floss colors above are all in the golden range (from a light yellow to a mid-range brown), and I thought it might be nice to use a strand of each with a variegated thread to add more depth to the design. Aside from DMC's new variegated threads, is there another brand that I could safely wash?

What is everyone's favorite variegated, cotton floss?

Thanks!

Reply to
mickey
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DMC's *old* variegated floss! A few years ago, Joann's was discontinuing it, so I bought a ton. Want me to send you a skein of

111? (I think that would go best with the colors you're using)
Reply to
Karen C - California

If you're designing this for sale then I wouldn't recommend using a discontinued product. What's most available in Canada? Here in the US I'd probably say Gentle Arts Sampler Thread or Weeks Dye Works (neither of which are available at big box stores AFAIK but are at most needleworks shops.)

Alison

Reply to
Alison

Excellent point, Alison. I'm not planning on selling this pattern. It's merely for me.

I'm not sure what's most available in Canada, yet. I just moved here this summer!

Do you know if either Gentle Arts or Weeks Dye Works are colorfast for washing?

Reply to
mickey

I don't think either are, but I do know that Six Strand Sweets is supposed to be!

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Reply to
Cheryl Isaak

DMC111 is not discontinued by DMC, just by Joann's. To make room for the new solid colors, our local Joann's clearanced all their variegateds.

Reply to
Karen C - California

Thanks, Cheryl! I was trying to remember this brand earlier. I had recalled the website layout, which isn't particularly easy to search on! LOL!

I really like the conversion chart that compares the SSS colors to DMC.

Reply to
mickey

Cris

Reply to
Cristilyn Schoenborn

IIRC, some of the Weeks Perle may be slightly colorfast. And some of the Needle Necessities floss seems to be less likely to run. I'd check their website as well. They make some gorgeous overdyed Kreinik metallics...

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you're really wanting to use overdyed floss, and be able to wash thepiece, I'd suggest rinsing it in a cold water rinse, with some white vinegarin the water. It'll defintely reduce the graduation of color, but somepeople like that.

FWIW - if you're washing a piece - you could try putting a dye grabber sheet in with the wash. I'm lucky enough to have a washer with 3 different hand wash type cycles - and that works great with silks or woolens. For quilting fabrics - I pre-wash (having learned my lesson thru my aunt's error) and always throw a dye grabber in the mix. Works great - takes out the excess dye which with some of the hand-dyed fabrics could truly make a mess of a finished product.

Oh - the original question - my favorite overdyed floss is Weeks, then Needle Necessities, then the Gentle Arts. And don't get me going on silks - mostly I really like the Caron Waterlillies - the hand IMHO is much nicer than the Gloriana ones - but the Gloriana's are gorgeous.

Ok - got to go and do something productive! ellice

Reply to
ellice

ellice said

I love the subtle changes in some of the Needle Necessities choices and merely like threads from them and Caron that change color abruptly.

Reply to
anne

Oh my! It doesn't matter that the piece was a small one, it's still no fun when it's ruined. Thanks for the heads up.

Reply to
mickey

Thanks for the input, Ellice. I was thinking about trying the pre-wash with vinegar trick, but all in all, I'd rather use something colorfast to begin with. This will be a fairly large piece (for me), so I know I'll need to wash it afterwards. But the subtle color change might be exactly what I'm looking for.

Clearly, I *need* to go purchase several varieties just to play with, right?

Reply to
mickey

Hello All,

With reference to recent posts about colourfastness, you need to say WHAT SOAP you are using ("soap" being the generic term).

I have washed Needle Necessities with Ivory Liquid and with the non-ionic stuff from Procion. Those were OK but then I stupidly threw the green-overdyed piece into the laundry with regular Wisk and lost the very subtle effect (ARGHHH).

I have recently done the salt-and-vinegar treatment as described on the FYI page of the Needle Necessities website. I have yet to dump a stitched sample of that into the wash--I have to find another source of the non-ionic detergent first.

So when we tell each other that some thread is "colourfast" let's get the whole story. I would hate to mislead somebody else into my stupidity...Irene

mickey wrote:

Reply to
ellis_chem

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