I think that beginners as well as the more experienced cross stitcher struggle with this; you’re missing 1 or more of the colors needed for your cross stitch pattern. Sometimes it’s even reason enough to net get started on a pattern at all. I’ve posted before on changing the color of the skin and hair in cross stitch patterns here. But I also have a trick for finding an alternative color when I’m missing certain colors of a cross stitch pattern.
Challenges during cross stitching
I often work on cross stitch projects that have a lot of colors in them. Currently, I am working on pattern that has 45 colors. This is what my work in progress looks like:
And although I have built up quite a supply of embroidery flosses, I regularly notice that I am missing 1 or more colors for a certain pattern. And if it’s a color that is not one of the main colors in the pattern, I sometimes find it easier to select an alternative color in stead of buying the color in question. But I mainly find it easier because it saves time.
Finding alternatives for the embroidery floss you’re missing
Until about a year ago, whenever I would miss a certain color, I would dive into my supply and try and match a color myself to use as an alternative. But this is not always easy, since I would often have to combine it with many other colors in the pattern. So I started researching online by looking for an overview of all the DMC colors (I use DMC embroidery floss). Although the results to this research did help me along a bit, it was not the solution I was looking for.
Great online tool to easily find alternatives
Eventually, I started searching the term ‘DMC Color Alternatives’ and the first result on Google was a hit! Because it led me to the DMC Color Substitute Chart. If you search the number of the color that you’re missing, the chart will give you 5 alternatives. Sometimes, I don’t even have 1 of those alternatives. So then I start searching for the alternatives of one of those 5 initial alternatives (hope that makes sense), until I eventually find a color I do have.
I am very curious to know what you normally do when you notice you’re missing a color? Let me know in the comments below!
