I have First Thanksgiving scheduled as my Thanksgiving Day start. This is one of the charts I’ve been pulling DMC for – some from the stash and some I had to buy.
This evening I got all the floss on floss drops. It’s so much easier to pull one strand off when it’s on the drops. They’re a bit time consuming to make but Vince and I were talking and listening to videos while I was doing it.
These are the punching tools I use. I have several shapes for the larger one that punches out the cardstock. I’ve been using just the medium square to conserve cardstock. I use the medium hole punch for the hole for the floss and the smaller hole punch for the hole for the ring to go through. Most standard small hole punches are 1/4″, or at least the ones I had, and that makes a hole that’s a bit too small for the ring, especially over the “joint” thing so I’m using a 3/8″ hole punch for the smallest hole.
When we were at Hobby Lobby yesterday, they had packages of miscellaneous sizes and colors of cardstock that were on sale for $2.50. There were probably over 200 sheets in there. Most of the sheets are big enough that I can get 2, 3 or 4 punches out of them.
I use this wooden stick (made by RNR Woodworks – I dont’ know if they have a website but you can find them on Facebook) to measure the lengths of floss to cut. This is a 9″ strip and they have an 18″ strip. The 18″ is for stitching with two threads (one folded in half) and the 9″ strip is what I use to cut 18″ lengths of floss.
I start by putting one end of the floss at about the midway point in the strip and then wrap the floss til it’s all wrapped around the strip.
Once it’s all wrapped, I cut across all the strands at the point where I originally placed the beginning of the floss (right in the middle of the strip).
The floss all goes onto a ring which I hang on a hook next to my chair. If I’m going somewhere and want to take it with me, I simpy grab the ring, place it in the project bag with the fabric, chart or tablet if I’m using a pdf and I’m ready to go.
This is what I end up with and I thread that through the larger round hole on the floss tag, after having written the DMC color number on it. I actually write the number on both sides so that whichever way I’m thumbing through the floss, I know which number it is.
Then, as I’m ready to use the floss, I use my needle to separate out one strand from the loop (where the floss was wrapped around itself to keep it on the floss tag), pull that out and everything else stays right where it’s supposed to stay.
So worth the work to get the floss all onto tags.
Joyce in Iowa says
Judy, how do you prepare your strands when you’re using silk thread on bobbins? Do you make a floss tag of just a few lengths of each color? I’d love it if you’d walk us through how you’re going to prep for the New Year Sampler. 🙂 I bought two half-yard cuts of 40 ct linen at a quilt shop in the Amana Colonies. It is going to work great for two upcoming projects. By the way, the Owl Forest charts are fabulous compared to the second pattern I bought (and had mailed to me). I’m going to keep an eye out for PDFs from now on because this chart is so tiny I’m going to have to scan it in sections… and my scanner is being persnickety. Keep up the great enabling… I mean work. 🙂
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I will do that a day or two after Thanksgiving, ok?
Cindy F says
Love this post! Thank you for showing your process! I’m going to have to make another trip to Hobby Lobby to get some hole punches…and see if they have the same package of card stock there. My husband has several boxes of old business cards that I was going to use but I like the idea of using the colors in the card stock. Now I have to decide if I should ask my husband to make that measuring stick or just order one. I will look into how long either choice it would take for me to have it in my hands, ready to use. 🙂 I do like to support businesses but if it’s going to be weeks and weeks I’m not sure I want to wait
JustGail says
I like your thread drops! One thing I’ve seen done is to punch a 2nd smaller (medium size?) hole to hold partially used threads. It makes it easier to find or avoid those little bits that are so good at hiding among the full strands.
cindy weber says
this is way easier than winding floss on the little cards (and i don’t want to buy a new box and mine is overfull). i don’t do a lot of cross stitch, but do a bit of embroidery from time to time and have a lot of colors and a lot of duplicates. when i get time, i may well try this system for storing floss.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I think it’s easier – definitely easier to get the strands off that you need. If you try it and like it, hopefully the time will be well spent.