Floss for Skin Tones

waspjh1984

I'm curious.  What floss colors do you prefer to use to create your skin tones if you decide to change a chart?
I have one that specifies a color that DMC has changed over the years and she won't look good with the pink they specify.  I know when I do ceramics I mix my own skin colors and tones.

So for Stitching do you have a favorite range and company and what is it?   What tips do you have about it?

tuanbao2012

Very nice! Beautiful! Thank you very much for sharing !!!

htsear13

Thank you for sharing :)

waspjh1984

Thanks.  It does.

Usually the skin tone works but I've discovered on my older charts that over time, DMC changed things around.  I've got some drastic differences between my old DMC and my new DMC that can't be accounted for in Dye Lots.  I'm not happy because that means I have to figure out what the old might have been and what the new is.  I've sat there and stared at floss with the bands on labeled the same numbers and in NO way are they the same colors.  And DMC claims they haven't changed the color.  It must be the dye lot.    Yeah right.  :dizzy:

It's a cute simple chart.  It is a very sour looking woman with her hair in a bun wearing a business suit and carrying a briefcase with a big happy face on it.  The Lettering says "Have a Nice Day"  She's anything but the embodiment of that saying.  When I get the flatbed I'll scan it off for the site.  It's worth putting up.  It's a good one and a nice one for not beginning but not intermediate stitchers as a skill builder.  Would be a nice weekend stitch also.

waspjh1984

For some reason some of the DMC colors I have a just well...   For example one was a lovely sort of purple mauve I was going to use.  I thought it might take more than 2 skeins so I pulled a second.  The color was labeled the same but this was in the same blue red category but it was definitely a purple instead of a mauve.   It was two different colors.  The one I bought when Wally got rid of all its floss in the stores and the other I picked up at Michael on sale about a year ago.  And they were still suppose to be the same.  Just different dye lots.   I've found this an ongoing problem with DMC lately.   Even buying some last year and comparing this year yields a difference if I am not buying an old dye lot.

waspjh1984

BTW thank you again.  I'm using the 754 and 758 and that is perfect for her.  They wanted me to use light shell pink with a lilac.  At least that is what the colors are now.  She would have looked like a painted clown.

sallyrose

Reply 5# waspjh1984

Looks like you have solved your problem. That's good. I sometimes have to change the skin tones also, to avoid unrealistic results, like your "painted clown" comment.

Regarding the difference in DMC colours, I have also been frustrated by this very same issue.
The difference can be huge in shade, making it a different colour altogether.
I have found this to be so between some old and new floss and also in current dye lots.
I would think that a large company like DMC would have better product quality control.

waspjh1984

Thanks much.  I will take a look at that.

It isn't just their color.  Their metallics made me swear off metallics until I tried another company's.  It was so easy to work with Fyre Werks metallics, I wondered why I quit.  I got out my DMC metallic.  NOW I remember.   

The DMC floss also is a headache with knotting.  If my floss tangles and knots with the old JC Coats, I pull gently against the knot and it comes right out.  I do that with DMC and I have a KNOT that has to be cut out and Alexander the Great couldn't get out with a sword.

It just puzzles me that such poor quality is one of the 'big' sellers.

waspjh1984

The piece I'm working on uses them and the coverage varies from good to overly large to sparse.  And it uses 2 threads on all.   It is so frustrating but unless I order from the net, if I want anything fast, it has to be DMC threads.  That is all the stores in this area carry.  And even at that the store is 75 miles away.

VivianLeigh

Yeah, DMC Metallics got the same reaction from me. very aggravating. I will have to try the Fyre Werks.

stitchspider

Thank you for asking this question. I am doing a pattern I found here (S-7035) that does not say what color to use. I could not find a good color to try on her hand. Thank you.