How many skeins of floss do you need?
Count the stitches per colour, divide by how many stitches one skein gives you on your fabric, and round up. The tricky part is that "stitches per skein" is an estimate. It depends on you as much as on the thread.
The basic numbers
A standard skein of six-strand cotton floss is 8 m (8.7 yd). DMC lists its Mouliné Spécial (117) at that length. You separate the six strands and stitch with a few at a time, so one skein holds 6 × 8 = 48 m of single strand.
Published guides disagree on how many full cross stitches that makes on 14-count Aida with 2 strands:
| Source | Crosses per skein (14-count, 2 strands) |
|---|---|
| Stitchmate thread calculator | about 960, waste included |
| SewCalcs floss calculator | about 1,500 |
| Clover Stitchery | about 1,700–1,900 |
| Yarn & Row chart | about 1,900 |
That's a factor of two. Some of it comes from how people stitch (rows of half crosses vs one cross at a time, long jumps on the back, tail length). Some comes from how much waste each source builds in. Skein Tally defaults to 1,500 plus a 10 % allowance. Both are assumptions, and you can change them. If you've tracked your own usage, use your number.
Scaling to other fabrics and strands
A cross on 18-count is 14/18 the size of one on 14-count, so it uses about 14/18 as much thread. Three strands use 3/2 as much as two. Skein Tally scales your base number in the same way:
crosses per skein = base × (count ÷ 14) × (2 ÷ strands)
For fabric stitched over two threads, use the effective count: 28-count linen over 2 behaves like 14-count. Yarn & Row's published chart follows the same proportions (about 2,450 crosses on 18-count and 1,500 on 11-count with a 1,900 base), which is a useful sanity check.
Partial stitches and backstitch
Skein Tally counts a half stitch as 0.5 of a full cross, a quarter as 0.25 and a three-quarter as 0.75. One backstitch the length of a stitch counts as 0.62 of a cross (roughly one leg on the front and two on the back, against about two diagonals plus two legs for a cross). These are simple geometric approximations, not measurements. Add extra metres for French knots, long stitches or specialty work.
Worked example
2,400 full crosses of black on 14-count, 2 strands, base 1,500: 2,400 ÷ 1,500 = 1.6 skeins, plus 10 % = 1.76, so buy 2. The same 2,400 stitches on 18-count: 2,400 ÷ (1,500 × 18/14) = 1.24, × 1.1 = 1.37, so still 2. With 1 strand on 18-count it drops to 0.69, so 1 skein is enough.
Practical advice
- If the pattern key lists skeins, compare them with the estimate. Designers often know their own stitching.
- Buy a spare of the main background colour, and of any colour that comes within about 10 % of the next whole skein.
- Estimates assume ordinary stitching. Heavy frogging (unpicking) or very long tails use more.
Sources
- DMC, Mouliné Spécial (117) product pages: six-strand cotton, 8 m skeins.
- Yarn & Row, "How far does one skein of floss go?" chart (updated Sept 2026).
- Clover Stitchery, "How many skeins of floss do you need?"
- SewCalcs, embroidery floss calculator method notes.
- Stitchmate, thread usage calculator notes.