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threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 7:42 am
by Crafteresa
morning everyone

I have been looking at buying a large number of threads
to make up my new line of cross stitch greeting card kits which I plan to seel on ebay and etsy to begin with

the thing that has surprised me is the difference between the price
of DMC and Anchor threads on ebay!

I can get Anchor threads at less than half the price of DMC!

as I have always used DMC myself I have to ask a simple question

is there any difference in quality or colourfastness? between the 2 brands

or perhaps could it just be the difference between the place of manufacture?

I must say I am confused :thinks:

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 7:55 am
by Mrs Milkybar Kid
I would say there is no difference in the colourfastness of the threads or quality really - except sometimes Anchor black does tend to give better coverage than DMC for some reason. It is all personal choice - but if I had my time again I would go with getting a full set of DMC rather than Anchor (which I have). I guess it depends what you are going to be stitching but all the 'big' designs that I want to stitch (HAEDs/Chatelaines) use DMC. I convert to Anchor for smaller designs - but for bigger designs you need the variation in the shades - DMC has more colour choices. In some cases on a conversion chart from DMC to Anchor there will be 1 Anchor thread for 2 DMC colours. I get my threads from Across Town Stitching - DMCs and Anchors are the same price, between 28p - 32p per skein depending on how many you buy.

Its all personal choice at the end of the day - but that's my 2 penneth!

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 8:01 am
by ali-cat
Just want to add my voice about Across Town Stitching - I ordered 150 DMC threads last week for £44 - and the postage is FREE!! (even to France!!!!!) :D

I do prefer DMC to Anchor but have also bought a lot of Venus threads as they are cheaper in France - but still twice the price the UK! :x

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 8:10 am
by Mrs Milkybar Kid
ali-cat wrote:Just want to add my voice about Across Town Stitching - I ordered 150 DMC threads last week for £44 - and the postage is FREE!! (even to France!!!!!) :D
I do prefer DMC to Anchor but have also bought a lot of Venus threads as they are cheaper in France - but still twice the price the UK! :x
Louise at Across Town Stitching is great! How ridiculous the price of DMC must be in FRANCE - for FRENCH thread!!

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 8:18 am
by Crafteresa
thank you for your very swift reply :applesauce: :applesauce: :applesauce:

I love my DMC's too but for making up these kits
I think i will switch to Anchor
now that I know the quality is about the same
just because the cost is so low :lol:

thanks for your help :dance:

I will however take a look at the store you mentioned
for my own personal needs though :ratherbe:

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 9:24 am
by Lessa54
I think it's personal choice really. I've opted for DMC just because I can't be bothered with the faff of converting the DMC numbers which most charts I like such as HAED, Scarlet Quince etc, seem to be done for, into Anchor. I have a few Anchor threads from kits so I guess ultimately I might aim to get a complete set of both (afterall can never have too much stash :lol: )

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 9:27 am
by BizzieLizzie
Mrs Milkybar Kid wrote:I get my threads from Across Town Stitching - DMCs and Anchors are the same price, between 28p - 32p per skein depending on how many you buy.
I'm another fan of Across Town Stitching. I tried them after Mrs MBK mentioned them in another thread (thanks, Mrs MBK - you've saved me a fortune! :dance: ) and Louise is fantastic! Each payday I order 200 DMC skeins for kitting up all my large projects and I think Louise must be starting to wonder what I'm doing with them all to need so many! :lol:

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 10:30 am
by Mrs Milkybar Kid
BizzieLizzie wrote: I'm another fan of Across Town Stitching. I tried them after Mrs MBK mentioned them in another thread (thanks, Mrs MBK - you've saved me a fortune! :dance: ) and Louise is fantastic! Each payday I order 200 DMC skeins for kitting up all my large projects and I think Louise must be starting to wonder what I'm doing with them all to need so many! :lol:
Glad to help! I kept ordering threads from her each payday too for about 5 months to kit up HAEDs - I've resisted the temptation to complete my DMC collection, but it is hard at her prices!

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 12:37 pm
by BizzieLizzie
Mrs Milkybar Kid wrote:I kept ordering threads from her each payday too for about 5 months to kit up HAEDs - I've resisted the temptation to complete my DMC collection, but it is hard at her prices!
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who does it that way. It certainly makes sense to kit up in bulk at Louise's prices!!

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 12:54 pm
by Lenne
I am normally 100 percent DMC- if there's a kit that catches my eye and it comes with Anchor I am so blurgh about it I will not choose this pattern. It's silly really because I based this on the threads that came with my Winnie The Pooh Sampler (Anchor threads) and they were... well- horrible to use. Some threads that come with kits seem perhaps of a lesser quality or is it my imagination I don't know.

Anyway- my other half picked up some Anchor multicoloured threads for a project I designed and I literally winced- that one bad experience was enough to put me off Anchor for good. The colours were so pretty I thought ok sausages to it let's give it a go.

The threads felt different. Extracting singular threads was difficult. I made it my aim to check the back of my work every three stitches because they kept getting knotted at the back without my noticing so I had to unpick the work, unknot- then realised that the thread couldn't be used again so I had to unpick more so I could cast it off. It was a horrible nightmare and it often made me want to throw my work across the room!

I did carry on, and eventually got used to it and it became fun again. Anchor, to me, is the lesser quality thread and I feel spoiled now when I use DMC- I appreciate it so much more BUT I am not so anti Anchor because I took the time to get used to it. I would prefer to pay more for DMC because I know it will give me less headaches and strop-attacks.

Hope this makes sense I do tend to ramble!

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 1:42 pm
by LadyS
To me they're both the same quality, and although there are some variation in the shades, I'm pretty sure they have very similar color amounts. I think DMC is at 454 plus 18 variegated and Anchor is at 471, including the variegated, but I could be outdated on that.

I started with Anchor as in Brazil it was more readily available and at a much better price. After I moved to the USA I noticed it's easier to find DMC here and it's also cheaper so I'm now collecting DMC instead.

Since I don't have the full range of colors on either, I've even used both on the same project, and I can barely tell the difference while working, except maybe Anchor feels a bit more plushy, like with black where coverage is better in Anchor than in DMC.

I never had the issues Lenne was describing, of Anchor floss knotting up more than DMC and such.

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 1:51 pm
by Lenne
LadyS wrote:
I never had the issues Lenne was describing, of Anchor floss knotting up more than DMC and such.
It's probably me doing it wrong to be honest :D

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 1:54 pm
by LadyS
LOL! Who knows? Maybe I'm just too amateurish to feel the difference, I know for sure a lot of people have preference for either of them. Some DMC colors look prettier I guess, but then again some Anchor ones give better coverage, so it's a toss up for me.

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 1:57 pm
by Lenne
LadyS wrote:LOL! Who knows? Maybe I'm just too amateurish to feel the difference, I know for sure a lot of people have preference for either of them. Some DMC colors look prettier I guess, but then again some Anchor ones give better coverage, so it's a toss up for me.
I still class myself as a newbie so most likely it's me tugging too hard or having the threads too long. Maybe it's a bit like Pepsi vs. Coke; personal preference. I think it's a case of try it and see what "flavour" suits the individual maybe.

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:57 pm
by ali-cat
One thing I would also say is go for what you can get locally. If you should run out of one colour you may just want to nip down to your local shop rather than order on-line again - and it would be really annoying if you couldn't get the type you had been using and the colours didn't match exactly from another brand.

I can only buy Venus from my local shop and needed to buy another skien for a project I was working on. The venus 'match' was so far off I had to drive to Cognac to buy DMC (but we did have a lovely lunch while there!! :lol: )

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 5:43 pm
by Mabel Figworthy
ali-cat wrote:I had to drive to Cognac to buy DMC (but we did have a lovely lunch while there!! :lol: )
It's a hard life :-)

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 5:57 pm
by Crafteresa
Thank You everyone for your help?
I really appreciate all of you xxx

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 12:53 am
by Theresay
I have a full set of DMC, simply because it's cheaper and easier to find here, and most of the charts I own use it. But on rare occasions when a design calls for Anchor then I will use Anchor--I think I'd done two projects with Anchor threads--and I didn't feel any difference :) I even substituted one color with DMC after I ran out of it and didn't want to spend postage to just get one skin of floss :wink:

Re: threads??? anchor vs dmc

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 1:22 am
by Corey.G
Like it has been said before, it's about personal preference. But the main difference I find with DMC and Anchor is the quality of colour.

I find that DMC has a lot of vibrant and rich colours, as opposed to Anchor, which has some nice colours, but they seemed to be more muted and have a softer, kind of weaker colour to them. Might be just me but that's what I seem to notice most in the difference between the two.

I personally go with DMC and have, nearly, a full set. I love the way DMC looks moreso compared to Anchor. Up to you though, sometimes it's best to go with what you can afford, more than what's recommended.