6 Strand Embroidery
Perle Cotton
these both would have been sold in skeins or hanks like they are today
The six strand cotton is basically the same as it used to be, although these photos don’t capture the detail on the label.
Only sizes 3 – 12 now and cotton perle is available in the 50g balls. The immage doesn’t do a good job of capturing the logo.
Modern
Pre-1900
All of the available DMC products, including size references. The exact date on this is unclear but between 1880-1890
My list of DMC books on Archive.org
1900’s
DMC : Dollfus Mieg & Cie is written out around the edge
1910’s
Catalog No. 10 from Frederick Herrschner, published in 1910, while it is difficult to see this gives a ton of insight into the product packaging. return to timeline
1918 Colbert Embroidery, these are two possible logo’s and this page also includes the two from the 1920’s below
Most of their early books and adverts are going to be in french or german.
1920’s
From La Dentelle Renaissance by DMC in 1920
1930’s
This is from 1934, no images of products but still a description of what was available, it’s basicaly the same as before.
I had originally placed this as a post 1960 product until I started adding these to my thread inventory (post coming eventually) I had thought they looked older, but the label didn't fit the pattern until I pulled the label all the way out.
The logo is much simpler than the bell referenced for 1952 and more importantly Dollfus Mieg & Cie is written around the outside.
The inside spool also feels like plastic, the ones today feel like/ are cardboard so they are recyclable. The paper is also blue, you can't tell with the blue thread but when you put them against a neutral background it becomes pretty obvious.
Plastic wasn't really available until the 30's and DMC merged with Thiriez & Cartier Bresson in 1961. So this was made somewhere in between that.
1950’s
This ad from McCall’s Needlework Spring-Summer 1952 gives us an okay look at the packaging for their balled cotton, specifically the perle cotton (left) as the other two are out of production
1970’s
This one will be between the 60’s and the 80’s, leaning more towards the earlier date as there still aren’t any washing instructions. It has the horse as a logo in 1961 when they merged with Thiriez & Cartier Bresson.
1980’s
There is a period between the 1970’s and the early 2000’s in art books where they will list the thread used but not an actual picture of the thread, this makes it really hard to date DMC floss. There is also the potential that I’m just not looking in the right books.
And advertising has dramatically changed as well. At this point all I have to go on is my own collection, knowing where it came from, and some educated guesses. If anyone has any other sources please let me know.
Bar codes became widespread in the 1980’s so anything with one postdates then. When dmc perle first had them the package was gold, black, and white. I know that this one specifically is from the early 80’s.
Today
The switch to the red/ orange bottom happened before 2012 and has stuck around to today:
I’m also relatively sure that I have some super old DMC embroidery floss somewhere so I’ll add photos of that when I find it.
If you want to learn about how we’re still finding DMC colors this is a great article about it.
Leave a Reply