Thread Review: Cosmo Embroidery Floss

While there are several brands of embroidery floss on the market, Cosmo floss from Japan is a lovely but not well-known brand. The floss is made by Lecien and comes in 501 colors, 462 solid and 39 variegated. This is about the same as Anchor and DMC.The floss comes in 8-meter (8.75 yards) pull-skeins, the same size as other cotton flosses.

The nicest aspect of Cosmo’s packaging is the labels with the color numbers. Unlike any other brand of floss, the color numbers are large, as you can see from the picture above.

I’m using several colors of Cosmo floss in this vintage Barbara Russell moth, below. It’s being stitched in Tent Stitch. The right half of the moth is mostly stitched.

I used four strands on this 18-mesh canvas. When plying the floss, it seemed to me that the individual strands were slightly thinner than strands of DMC floss. Although this might be the case (I don’t have the tools to measure this), the coverage was still excellent.

When stitching, Cosmo floss went through the canvas easily. Although I haven’t used a large amount of any color, so far I have had no problems with tangling. Nor did I have problems with knotting as I stitched. I often have these problems with DMC. When stitched, Cosmo floss has a bit more sheen than DMC, this is probably due to the length of the cotton fibers Lecien uses.

If you need it, there is a simple conversion chart from DMC to Cosmo.

Right now, not many needlepoint shops carry Cosmo, although some do. It’s easier to find it in quilt shops. Lecien also makes a pearl cotton, they call it Size 5 floss. It is packaged in 25-yard skeins. They also make a sashiko thread, Hidamari, which comes on 30-meter mini-cones. There are 20 solids and 20 multi-colors. I’ll be reviewing this thread in the future.