Guides / Making your chart
Choosing your DMC colours: building a palette
Nearly 500 DMC threads, and no idea which go together? Three routes lead to a palette that holds up, with numbers you can ask for at the shop.
There are nearly 500 DMC stranded cottons, and that is exactly what makes choosing hard. Three routes lead to a palette that holds up: the gallery, a photo, or a single thread and its neighbours.
Take ideas from the gallery
Every chart in the gallery is published with its thread list. When a combination stops you, note its numbers.
| Category | Its colours |
|---|
| Flowers | Soft pinks and greens |
| Landscapes | Blues and greens that answer each other |
| Halloween | Oranges, purples and black |
| Christmas | Bright reds and pine greens |
| Motifs | Two or three colours, no more |
Pull the colours from a photo
A scarf, a bunch of flowers, a garden in autumn: take a photo and drop it into the converter.
The converter at work: the photo becomes a chart, width and colours are set, the threads to buy line up, then the chart is printed.- Set “Thread colors”: 5 to 8 for a bold palette, 10 to 12 to keep some shading.
- Play with “Colour brightness”: from Natural to Very vivid, the palette goes from muted to bright.
- Read the thread list: that is your palette, from the most used to the least.
- Tap the thread that jars and replace it with the wheel.
Tip. Keep the palette for something else: enter its numbers under “Use my own threads” for another photo, or draw with it in the pattern maker.
Start from a single thread
Every thread has its page in the colour chart, with three palettes built around it, in real DMC cottons.
Choosing on the wheel: one hue in several shades, neighbouring colours, or two colours that face each other.- Monochrome: one hue, light to dark. Tawny fur: 738, 436, 434, 801.
- Analogous: the neighbouring hues on the wheel, for a gentle set that stays one family.
- Complementary: the opposite hue. Around a blue like 797, oranges that make a detail sing.
- One precise colour to match, a paint, a Pantone? The colour to DMC tool finds the thread.
Tip. Stitching in Anchor, Madeira or Cosmo? Every reference has its page and its DMC equivalent, like Anchor 403 black. See the Anchor, Madeira and Cosmo charts.
Lightness before hue
Contrast in lightness matters more than colour. A readable palette has lights, mids and darks, even in a single hue.
- Plan three tones for each important colour: light for highlights, mid, dark for shadow.
- A petal in one pink looks flat; with three, it gains depth.
- ✓ A light, a mid and a dark: the palette reads from across the room
- ✗ Two threads of the same lightness: once stitched, they merge
Tip. Squint at your skeins: if two threads merge, they will merge stitched too.
The fabric is part of the palette
Fabric shows between the stitches and in every empty square: its colour counts as much as a thread.
| Fabric | Effect on the colours |
|---|
| Ecru | Warms everything |
| White | Lets bright colours stand out |
| Black | Needs light, luminous threads |
Check for real before buying
A screen never shows a thread's exact colour, and it exaggerates contrast.
Each shade has its number, and close shades sit side by side: compare them together before you choose. Photo: Takashi Kiso, CC BY-SA 2.0- ✓ The skeins side by side, in daylight, on your fabric
- ✗ The coloured squares on a screen, taken at face value