Cross stitch guide
Cross stitch thread conversion
Each thread maker numbers its colors in its own way, and no two makers dye the same shades. A conversion chart gives the closest color in another maker's range, never the same one. Look the number up, then check the two threads side by side in daylight.
On this page 7 parts
How conversion works
DMC, Anchor, Madeira and the other makers each dye their own range of colors and give each color their own number. The numbers have nothing to do with one another: black is 310 from DMC and 403 from Anchor.
A conversion chart is a list of pairs. For each color of one maker, someone has picked the color of another maker that looks nearest to it. You need one when a chart is keyed in one maker's numbers and the thread you own, or can buy, comes from another.
Why no match is exact
- The ranges are different. One maker's range has shades that another's lacks, so the nearest color can be a little lighter, darker, warmer or cooler.
- Charts disagree with each other. Each chart is one person's judgment. Put two published DMC to Anchor charts side by side and they name the same single Anchor thread for about seven DMC colors in ten. For the rest they differ, or one of them offers a choice of two or three.
- It does not run backward. Two colors of one maker can share the same nearest color of another. Converting there and back again may not bring you to the thread you started with.
So treat every conversion as "the closest", and check it with your eyes.
DMC to Anchor: pairs that two charts agree on
This is not a full chart. It lists only colors for which two independent published charts give the same single Anchor number. Each Anchor thread here is the closest match, not an identical color.
| DMC | Color | Closest Anchor |
|---|---|---|
| 310 | Black | 403 |
| Ecru | Ecru | 387 |
| 3865 | Winter white | 2 |
| 666 | Bright red | 46 |
| 304 | Medium red | 1006 |
| 814 | Dark garnet | 45 |
| 740 | Tangerine | 316 |
| 725 | Topaz | 305 |
| 727 | Very light topaz | 293 |
| 699 | Green | 923 |
| 986 | Very dark forest green | 246 |
| 820 | Very dark royal blue | 134 |
| 796 | Dark royal blue | 133 |
| 826 | Medium blue | 161 |
| 827 | Very light blue | 160 |
| 552 | Medium violet | 99 |
| 210 | Medium lavender | 108 |
| 600 | Very dark cranberry | 59 |
| 604 | Light cranberry | 55 |
| 801 | Dark coffee brown | 359 |
| 898 | Very dark coffee brown | 360 |
| 3371 | Black brown | 382 |
| 415 | Pearl gray | 398 |
| 318 | Light steel gray | 399 |
| 413 | Dark pewter gray | 236 |
| 3799 | Very dark pewter gray | 236 |
Look at the last two rows. DMC 413 and DMC 3799 are two different grays, and both charts send them to the same Anchor thread. If your design uses both, they will come out as one color in Anchor, and one of them needs a second look.
The whites show the limits of charts most clearly. DMC makes three: BLANC, B5200 and 3865. They are three different threads. The two charts agree on 3865 and do not agree on B5200, so choose whites by eye.
How to substitute a color
- Find the pair in a chart that runs in your direction: from the maker in the key to the maker you will buy.
- Check it in daylight. Lay the substitute beside the original thread if you have a length of it. A maker's color card with real thread samples is the next best thing, and is truer than a printed card. Lamp light changes some shades.
- Keep the order of light and dark. Shading depends on steps: light, medium, dark. If you replace one step, check that it still sits between its neighbors. If two steps convert to the same thread, move one of them a shade.
- Convert a whole color, not half of one. Do not change thread in the middle of a patch. A near match that looks fine on the skein shows as a line in the stitching. If you must change, do it where the color starts a separate area.
- Do not expect a match for hand-dyed thread. Its color shifts along the length, so no solid color is its equal. One maker of hand-dyed thread says outright that it cannot offer a conversion chart, for that reason.
How to change the colors of a pattern
Changing a pattern's colors on purpose, a red dress to blue or a palette to suit a room, is a different job from converting between makers. No chart gives the answer: you choose the new threads yourself.
- Count the shades in the part you are changing. A flower shaded in three pinks needs three shades of the new color.
- Give each shade a partner of the same value. Value is how light or dark a color is. The lightest pink becomes the lightest blue, the middle pink the middle blue and the darkest pink the darkest blue, so the shading still reads.
- Take the new shades from one color family. A maker's color card sets its threads out in families that run from light to dark. Shades from one family sit well together.
Then treat each new thread as a substitute: look at the set together in daylight, and change a color everywhere it appears, as in the steps above.
When a kit runs out of a thread
Kit thread is often not labeled with a maker's number. The key gives the kit's own code, or only a symbol.
- If the key gives a code, look for a conversion chart from that kit maker's codes. They exist for several kit makers, and they lead to DMC or Anchor numbers you can buy by the skein.
- If there is no code, match by eye. Take a length of the thread, in daylight, to a color card or to the skeins themselves, and choose the nearest.
- Use the new thread for a separate area where you can. If the old and new threads meet inside one patch and the join shows, the surest cure is to unpick that patch and stitch it all in the new thread.
How much floss for cross stitch shows how to estimate how far a color will go.
Where to go next
Once a chart is in DMC numbers, paste them into the thread shopping list to see which you own and which to buy. The thread checklist lists the DMC colors by number and name. Cross stitch thread and floss explains the makers, the numbers and the three whites.