Thread Guide

Thread choice affects the color, texture, and overall appearance of a reproduction sampler. Among the familiar choices are DMC cotton, over-dyed cotton from Weeks Dye Works, The Gentle Art, and Classic Colorworks, and silk from Au Ver à Soie, Needlepoint Inc., and specialty dyers.

Cotton threads

DMC stranded cotton is an affordable, widely available choice for sampler stitching. Its six strands can be separated to suit your fabric and the chart’s instructions. Solid colors give lettering, borders, and motifs a consistent appearance, while the cotton’s gentle sheen keeps the finished stitching from looking completely matte. DMC also describes its standard stranded cotton as colorfast, making it a practical option for pieces that may need washing.

Over-dyed cotton threads

Weeks Dye Works, The Gentle Art, and Classic Colorworks offer cotton threads with variations in shade along the strand. Depending on the color, those changes may be barely noticeable or quite pronounced. They can give leaves, flowers, buildings, and alphabets a softly varied appearance that suits many antique-inspired designs. The Gentle Art’s Sampler Threads and Simply Shaker collections are specifically known for their gently over-dyed cotton colors.

“Over-dyed” describes the coloring process, rather than the fiber itself. Both cotton and silk can be over-dyed. These threads can suggest the uneven, faded appearance of an old sampler, although that effect does not necessarily reproduce how the original looked when it was first stitched.

Silk threads

Silk offers a soft feel and a distinctive luster that catches the light beautifully. Au Ver à Soie’s Soie d’Alger is a divisible, seven-strand spun silk, while Soie 100.3 is a fine, twisted silk commonly used for delicate stitching on higher-count linen. Both appear in reproduction sampler charts from Hands Across the Sea Samplers. Needlepoint Inc. silk, often abbreviated as NPI, is another familiar option for stitchers who prefer silk.

Silk generally costs more than cotton, and different silk threads vary in thickness, twist, and shine. A strand of one silk may cover the fabric differently from a strand of another, so follow the chart’s recommendations and try a few stitches before beginning.

Over-dyed silk threads

Threads such as Classic Colorworks Belle Soie and Gloriana silk floss combine silk’s luster with changing shades of color. They offer another way to introduce gentle variation into a sampler, particularly in larger motifs or areas of repeated stitching.

Choosing and working with your threads

Begin with the thread listed in the chart when you want a finish close to the designer’s model. Cotton is a good choice for keeping a large project affordable, while silk offers a different texture and finish. Over-dyed threads add variation, but a solid-color conversion will usually give a more uniform result.

When stitching with a variegated thread, completing each cross before moving to the next helps preserve the progression of color. Working a row of half stitches and then returning can blend those changes differently. Neither approach is wrong; each produces a different effect.

Buy enough hand-dyed thread for the whole project when possible, since dye lots can vary. Color conversions are useful starting points, but they may not match every shade within an over-dyed strand. Check the manufacturer’s care instructions before washing, and use the chart’s strand count as your starting point for good coverage.