Cross-stitch skein calculator: how much floss?

How the calculation works

A skein of DMC six-strand floss is 8 meters (8.7 yards) long. Cut into comfortable 18-inch lengths, that's about 17 pieces, each with roughly 15 usable inches once you've threaded the needle and finished off. How far that goes depends on how big your stitches are (the fabric count) and how many strands you stitch with. Put together, one skein covers about:

stitches per skein ≈ 255 × fabric count ÷ strands

Real-world counts from stitchers who've measured it land within a few percent of these numbers. The calculator then adds 20% for starting and finishing threads and the odd unpicked stitch, and rounds up — you can't buy part of a skein.

Tips that save a trip to the shop

• Buy each color all at once. Dye lots can differ slightly; two skeins bought months apart may not match.
• Backstitch uses one strand and very little thread — one skein of a dark color covers the outlines of most pet portraits.
• Big areas of one color (backgrounds, a black coat) are where you're most likely to run short — check those counts twice.
• Every pattern from our pattern maker includes a shopping list with the skein count for each color already worked out.