DMC vs Anchor floss: differences and how to convert

DMC and Anchor are the two big names in stranded cotton. If a pattern lists one and your local shop sells the other, you can almost always make the switch. You just have to do it with your eyes open, because the color numbers don't line up and no conversion is exact.

What the two threads have in common

On paper they're close to identical. Both are 100% cotton, six strands loosely twisted together so you can pull out as many as you need, and both are mercerized (each brand says double mercerized), which is what gives floss its sheen. Both come in 8 meter skeins, which is 8.7 to 8.75 yards depending on how the label rounds it. That last point is handy: skein counts carry straight over when you switch brands. So do strand counts. A pattern that asks for two strands on 14 count means two strands of whichever brand you're using.

Both ranges are big. Anchor's solid colors number in the mid 400s, with multicolor and ombre shades on top, and DMC's solid range is a little larger.

Where they differ

Numbering

The two brands number their colors independently, and the numbers mean nothing to each other. DMC black is 310; Anchor black is 403. DMC also uses a few letter codes (BLANC, ECRU and B5200, a brighter white) alongside numbers, and in 2017 it added 35 new colors numbered 01 to 35. Anchor uses plain numbers, from single digits like 1 and 2 (its whites) up to four digits.

Feel

This is where stitchers have opinions. DMC is often described as having a tighter twist and a silkier sheen, and Anchor as a little softer in the hand. In a finished piece worked in one brand, the difference is subtle. Put the two side by side in the same area, though, and the sheen can give it away.

Patterns

Most English-language patterns give DMC numbers. If a chart doesn't name a brand at all, it's very likely DMC. Some keys print two columns of numbers; check the headings, because each column is a different brand and you only need one.

Availability

DMC is sold almost everywhere. Anchor has long been strong in the UK, Europe and Australia. In 2023 the DMC Group bought the Anchor brand, while Coats kept US distribution. In late 2024 Anchor lost its US distributor, and it has been hard to find in American shops since. It hasn't been discontinued; outside the US it's still made and sold.

Why conversions are never exact

A conversion chart is someone's careful judgment of the closest color in the other range. It isn't a dye recipe, and the two ranges were never designed to match shade for shade. Yarn Tree's conversion chart puts it bluntly at the top: use this chart only as a guide.

You can see the gaps in the charts themselves:

• Two colors can become one. Yarn Tree converts both DMC 413 (Dark Pewter Gray) and DMC 3799 (Very Dark Pewter Gray) to Anchor 236, and both DMC BLANC and DMC 3865 (Winter White) to Anchor 2.
• Charts disagree with each other. Yarn Tree converts DMC 321 (Red) to Anchor 9046, while several other charts give Anchor 47.
• A round trip can land somewhere else. Convert DMC 413 to Anchor 236 and back again, and Yarn Tree's Anchor to DMC chart hands you DMC 3799, a darker gray.
• DMC's 2017 colors, 01 to 35, are missing from many charts altogether.

Variegated threads are another matter. DMC's Color Variations and Anchor's multicolor and ombre shades change color along the strand, and a conversion chart built for solid colors can't match that. Pick a substitute by eye, or stitch that part in a solid color.

None of this matters much for a single color in a small motif. It matters a lot in a shaded design where 413 and 3799 sit next to each other to make a soft shadow. Collapse them into one Anchor number and the shadow goes flat.

How to convert a pattern

1. Write out every color in the pattern's key, with the symbol and, if the pattern gives it, the number of stitches.
2. Convert each one with a chart or the DMC to Anchor and Anchor to DMC tools. Craft Studio has 489 solid DMC colors with Anchor conversions for most of them, and the tools pages are free and need no account.
3. Look down the converted list for duplicates. If two original colors landed on the same number, that's a shade you're about to lose. Pick the next lighter or darker shade for one of them so the pair still reads as two colors.
4. Check colors with the actual skeins in daylight, against your fabric. A screen or a printed chart can't show you how a red sits on antique white linen.
5. Write the new numbers into the key next to the old ones, and keep the symbols as they are, so the chart still reads the same.

A worked example

Say a small pattern uses six DMC colors. Here they are with Yarn Tree's Anchor matches:

Four convert to their own numbers. The two grays both land on Anchor 236, so step 3 catches them. Yarn Tree's Anchor to DMC chart pairs 236 with DMC 3799 and Anchor 401 with DMC 413, so use 236 for 3799 and 401 for 413, then check the pair side by side in daylight. For the red, several other charts (and the DMC to Anchor tool here) give Anchor 47 instead of 9046. Either works. Pick one and use it throughout.

For a color with no listed match at all, such as DMC 01 (White Tin, one of the 2017 colors), choose the nearest Anchor shade by eye in daylight.

Mixing brands in one project

It's fine to use DMC for most colors and Anchor for one or two, or the other way around. What I'd avoid is mixing brands within one color area: half a sky in DMC and the other half in an "equivalent" Anchor shade will usually show a seam, from the slight color difference or from the sheen. Decide on a brand for each color at the start and buy enough to finish it.

The amount of floss doesn't change between brands, since the skeins are the same length. The floss calculator works out skeins from your stitch count and fabric whichever brand you buy.

Which brand to use

If a pattern is written for DMC and DMC is easy to buy where you live, use DMC and skip the conversion entirely. The designer chose those exact shades, and you avoid every problem above.

Converting makes sense when you already have a drawer full of the other brand, or when it's the one your local shop carries. A stitcher in the UK with a good Anchor stash will often find it easier to convert a DMC pattern than to buy twenty new skeins, as long as they check the shaded areas carefully.

Starting from something other than a pattern

If you're matching a color from a photo, a paint chip or a web color rather than a pattern, go straight to DMC: hex to DMC finds the nearest floss for a color code, and you can convert to Anchor from there if you need to.