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So I really love the look of the Chatelaines, but I was wondering if they are all done in silk? All the ones I've found online use silk thread, which I'm deathly afraid of (I'm a clumsy, messy stitcher and I'm sure I would shred silk into a million pieces).

They don't have to be stitched in silks - Martina always offers a DMC conversion, although obviously it will not look the same as one stitched in silk, no one would know if you didn't tell them! There are some threads that you may have to use your own eye to substitute as with very variegated threads Martina can not always offer a sub in DMC. I stitched my Chinese Mandala Garden with DMC and I love it!


EDA: If you check out the Chat Yuku Board you will be able to see the materials lists for past and present Chatelaines and most of the DMC conversions

Excellent, thank you!

If you can afford the silks I would recommend having a go with them.......they really are very robust stuff and they don't knot as easily as cotton, I love using silks!!

If you want to try silk the best way to stop it shredding and messing up (and yes I'm a messy shredder myself) is to get a small, clean, dish sponge like this: http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl= ... AM&dur=328" target="_blank

Moisten it, wring it out and then wrap in round your silk and wipe to the end (making sure you follow the nap - direction of the fibres).

The silk becomes quite easy to negotiate then and it doesn't harm the end product at all 8}

nachosmiley wrote:If you can afford the silks I would recommend having a go with them.......they really are very robust stuff and they don't knot as easily as cotton, I love using silks!!

Sam is soooooo right - all my other Chatelaines are going to be stitched with silk, once you start stitching with silk it is very hard to go back to cotton! I've never had any problems at all with stitching in silks, if you want to try some to get a feel for them some of the cheapest are HDFs. - I'm about to start a HAED with them and they are gorgeous to stitch with! Some stitchers convert Martina's designs to HDFs as they are much cheaper than the variety of brands Martina uses.