You probably have realized by now I’m a thread junkie. I’ve said it before, and I freely admit it. But I’ve never actually gone so far as to purchase a whole set of a specific embroidery thread (you know, one of every color!). Granted, I’ve come close. Last year, a certain hankering crept over me: I longed to purchase the whole available range of cotton floche! And I resolved, at that moment, that if I ever did buy a whole set of one type of thread, the first set would indeed be cotton floche. It took a while to do it – a whole set of an embroidery thread isn’t cheap, if the set is somewhat extensive, so I had to save for it. When Hedgehog Handworks launched their January sale (15% off everything) this year, I jumped!
Cotton floche is a beautiful embroidery thread, perfect for monogramming, for all kinds of surface work, for folk and ethnic styles of embroidery, for cross stitch. It works great for long and short stitch shading, as you can see in this beautiful piece worked by Jeanne of Just String. It makes beautiful little flowers for surface work. It’s wonderful to smock with. And some stitchers love it for needlepoint on higher count canvas…
Me? I love it for…. everything!
I love its softness, and its vivid colors.
I love its range of shades within colors.
I love that its easy to stitch with.
I just downright love the stuff.
And I love the fact that I now have the whole range! (Well, the whole range available at Hedgehog – 89 colors!) *Sigh*
(The next question: what am I going to do with it? I suppose you’ll just have to wait and see!)
If you’re not familiar with floche and want to do some reading on it, I’ve got a couple articles here on Needle ‘n Thread:
Thread Comparison between Floche, DMC perle cotton, and DMC stranded cotton
Floche, Danish Flower Thread, and coton a broder
Floche vs Danish Flower Thread – comparison
Miniature Flowers Sampler using Floche
Ooooh, now I've got thread envy.
Can't wait to see what you do with all those luscious colors.
Aaaaaaah! I'm speechless!
From another junkie ~ Darn, I only have 74 colors, I will have to catch up with you.
I too, love this thread. It makes the neatest split stitch and chain stitch. That is as far as I have gotten. I am looking for more ways to use the Floche. The feel is wonderful. I really enjoyed using it.
Sharon
Does the Floche thread "bleed" like Danish cotton thread? I always set my Danish cotton threads with vinegar before I use them. Any problem with Floche?
Colleen Lim
Beautiful colors, I'm envious. At one point I had all the DMC colors of regular floss when I set up "hardware" drawers to hold them all. I don't know what I have now.LOL
Mary,
I do empathize with you! Vaune Pierce has a "Floche of the month club" so I signed up for that. I also have the entire DMC cotton floss collection. Vaune also has an "Anchor Floss of the Month Club" but so far I've been able to resist. But I may get all of the new colors of Coton a Broder 25. I think I have more thread than I'll be able to use in my lifetime! I'll have to will it to someone.
Having read your article about floche I ask myself
How do we convert our normal DMC or Anchor thread numbers to get the same/similar effect when sewing from a chart or kit using these threads?
The colours are spectacular and the flowers sewn using these threads are beautiful.
I look forward to your email every day and even though you have unpicked your jacobean work alot it is working out fabulous.
Keep up the good work.
Gillian Gonzalez
G'day Mary,
Now I have a face to the name. Lovely. Went into Jeanne of Just String's link. And there you were.
Looking at this thread makes me tingley and your descriptions and thoughts on it make me 'tingleier' still!!!!
Your certainly have a professional eye for photography too. Yummy pics.
Hope you're well now.
Cheers, Kath
OK I bit!!! I just ordered several colors of floche. I am interested in how it handles and I too am a thread junkie. I am glad I know the DMC color numbers…it helps in selecting the colors you use most often, as well as what you have in mind to use them for.
Speaking of color numbers, I do plan to make a "color chart" or something with real threads for this group of floche. I suspect the colors coordinate with DMC's colors for stranded cotton, but I'm not certain. I'll try to make some inquiries along those lines… but I did notice that some of the reds have the same numbers.
To answer the question about bleeding – I haven't had floche bleed on me before. That doesn't mean it doesn't – but I've never had it happen with this floche.
Gillian – I think (though I'm not certain) that the color numbers coordinate w/ dmc stranded floss colors. I'll check into that. Keep in mind that floche is thicker than one strand of DMC cotton floss, so if you are stitching with one strand of DMC cotton, then floche won't exchange well, unless you go for a lower thread count on your fabric (if you're doing counted work). If you're doing surface work, it will exchange fine, but it will look a wee bit thicker.
Sharon – only 15 colors to go! Keep in mind, I bought the small hanks – not the large ones. If you're lucky to have the large ones, you're way ahead of me!!!
Cynthia – uh…. aaaaahhhh. Floche of the Month Club. That sounds exceedingly dangerous for me. I must go look….
Thanks all, for your comments!
MC
Mary these threads look wonderful .I have all the colors of DMC mouliné.And I believe that I 'll start a new collection with the floche.I've ordered some at Hedgehog Handworks and at the same time ordered somme AVAS .
I look forward to your mail every day.Many Thanks for the post,the marvellous photos ,the envy and ideas and the link.
Michele
The DMC Floche a Broder numbers are the same as the DMC floss numbers. As far as I know, the 89 colors available at Hedgehog Handworks are all the colors currently available in the US. I could be wrong. It's happened in the past.
Sooooooooooo pwetty!!!!
(And I'm soooo jealous! *grin*).
Don't you just want to run your fingers through them, and arrange and re-arrange them. (which I'm sure you have been doing
Oh my….another item added to my wish list! I have been eyeing these threads for what seems like forever…I NEED a full set methinks…
I am a wee bit confused though…you bought 80 colours (you lucky duck!) but on the DMC website it says it comes in 20 colours…
Hi, mj –
I believe that this floche is actually from DMC France, rather than DMC USA. I could be wrong about that. It comes in 89 colors. There are other websites (Vaune Pierce, for example) that sell 87 colors, but they only sell the whole hank (for $6 / each or so). Hedgehog carries 89.
Anyway, the difference is probably the source of the floche.
For those who didn't see Joady's comment above, the color numbers coordinate with regular DMC cotton floss numbers. So conversion between the two threads is easy enough. Also, if you have a DMC color card for the regular stranded cotton, you can at least see what colors of floche you're getting when you order.
Yep, I think I'm going to have to make up a real-thread color chart with these. I wonder if that should be a stitched thing, or if I should work it on paper. Hm.
MC
This post is so inspiring. I went to the DMC website and I must say there is entirely too much focus on cross-stitch and not enough on other embroidery techniques, which is where their variety of threads can really be show-cased. I am neither for or against cross-stitch, although I think cross-stitch gives you color and not much in the way of technique. It's just that I think they could really expand on the possibilities on their website……..
Now I want to try some cotton floche….and perle cotton…and cotton a broder…and Danish flower thread…. and all the other things I've never tried. Mary, your blog is so inspiring.
Thank you.
WendyBee