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| DMC's Etoile and DMC's Cotton Floss |
Recently my local Michael's (a large craft store chain with a branch only 45 minutes from me) starting stocking DMC's newest thread which is called Mouline Etoile. This is a six ply cotton/polymide-metallic blend. You can see the end as it comes from the skein above. The medium dark red is Etoile in DMC's red C816. The tan is DMC's regular cotton floss in tan 3864. Etoile is divisible into six plies, all of which have a colored metallic woven in. The metallic color varies according to the color of the base thread. The blue has a blue metallic, the red has red metallic, etc. I understand that the Etoile colors are matches to the regular DMC colors, so if you have regular DMC cotton floss red 816 in your stash, you can see the medium dark red used in my Etoile C816.
https://www.dmc.com/us/mouline-etoile-embroidery-thread-9005736.html
If you look carefully at the above photo, you'll see the metallic red sparkle. If you compare the red thread to the tan, you can see that Etoile is slightly fatter than regular cotton floss. It is almost like it is fluffier, even when you ply the Etoile. It feels different when you handle it. I am doing tent stitches on 18 count canvas with three plies of my red Etoile. I would probably use three plies of the tan cotton floss as well on this canvas for tent stitches. I think the coverage using 3 plies of each thread would be about the same but I haven't actually tested this yet.
The closest thread to Etoile in my opinion is Rainbow Gallery's Silk Lame Braid although it is a single strand instead of being made to be plyable like Etoile. (But I'm talking texture here, not comparing flosses.) It also has the metallic woven into each of the plies. Silk Lame Braid comes 10 yards to a card while Etoile and regular cotton floss from DMC has 8 meters in each skein which works out to about 8.75 yards. I think Etoile has more sparkle than Silk Lame Braid, which is more subtle.
Etoile costs $1.95 per skein and regular DMC cotton floss costs $0.56 a skein, so you can see Etoile costs over twice as much as DMC's regular floss. Silk Lame Braid costs $3.45 if you buy the Petite version, which I normally do. (The 13 and 18 count Silk Lame Braid are nearly $4 if I remember correctly.) All the prices are before tax is added in and based on my local pricing. Your cost may vary, depending on where you live and whether you are able to score coupons or sales. By the way, don't buy Etoile on Amazon. It costs from $6.44 to $6.95 per skein there!
What do I think about Etoile? Well, I still like Silk Lame Braid better, despite the expense. It comes in many more colors. I am not wild about the lighter shades of Etoile, either. The Blanc and Ecru both look grayed out or dirty. The dark and light grays are simply dark and light gray, without the metallic silver showing up much. I didn't like the yellows and tans. But the blues and purples are very pretty and I liked the red shades. I haven't seen all the colors. My local Michael's did not have the pink, for example, which greatly disappointed me. (I love pink!) If you are going to pick only one color, go for one of the darker blues for a night sky. That will be gorgeous! But if you need plenty of shades for your project, use Silk Lame Braid instead.
I've never had the metallic part of Silk Lame Braid unwind completely, either, which has happened once with the Etoile. (I've used about half my red skein to date.) Etoile plies easily but as you recombine your plies in the needle and stitch with them, it stitches much like regular DMC cotton floss. However, the end of the plies in the needle eye get thinner with the wear. It's probably better to use shorter lengths of Etoile to help minimize both of these things. I try to stick to less than 18 inches when I cut a length of Etoile.
This is a great thread if you are on a budget, don't need many shades, or don't have a thread emporium close to you since DMC is carried so many places. But I'm going to mostly use Silk Lame Braid since I need the variety of colors and shades available from Rainbow Gallery.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright Decemer 5, 2019 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.
