DMC 974 – The Rarest Thread?

A few months ago I reported on a DMC thread so rare, that Disney made sure it couldn’t be purchased in a skein. It is a thread that perfectly encapsulates one of its most beloved characters.
But it turns out, that I was scraping the surface. It’s one that revealed an even rarer thread.

 

The Disney Thread

Let’s start with a quick recap of the story so far.
In the 90s, the DMC thread company, driven by their US thread factory went on an ideas rampage. From crazy threads with smells built in, to the now famous US only threads. But when they were contacted by Disney, they jumped at the chance to create a thread just for them.
Partnering with Designer Stitches, under the designer Debbie Minton, DMC and Disney came together to make a thread the perfect color of Winnie The Pooh.
Dyed exclusively for the kits, and never to be sold as a skein, this thread, numbered 724, became a rare treat for anyone who hunted it down.
 

The New Rarest Thread?

So where does this new thread enter the story? Well, despite the initial success of the Designer Stitches kits, Disney and DMC started to pull back against the thread. Designer stitches knew the kits would sell, and pumped out frankly, a MASSIVE amount of them, making Disney and DMC uneasy (correctly so as it happens!)
 
So without much fanfare in 1998, DMC stopped producing the 724 thread altogether.
 
The Designer Stitches brand wasn’t to be deterred though, and asked DMC to make them a new thread to replace it with. And with that; DMC 974 was born.
 

The Short Life Of DMC 974

But the good times didn’t last.
Only a year later (after the “D” series of patterns ended), DMC also pulled this thread from the company.
Designer Stitches wasn’t in a good way at this point, and Disney and DMC cleverly chose to mitigate costs where they could, leaving the kits to source threads from other manufacturers, meaning 974 remains one of the only DMC threads not to be sold on a skein, but also only sold within a limited amount of kits (although it wasn’t a limited edition DMC thread).

This thread has officially just topped my rarest DMC threads list (making that journey to a complete set of cross stitch threads all the harder!)
 

The Thread

After talking about the thread so much, it only makes sense to end this post discussing the threads look.
It’s gold. And frankly, it’s a good gold too.
However, it doesn’t really fit anywhere in the color palette. No run nicely fits this color, which (thanks to needing to be different from 724) comes out as a darker thread than you would at first think Winnie The Pooh to be.
If we had to put it anywhere, our best bet would be somewhere in the 3852, 728, 783, 782 range, which is where we’d also place 724 if we had the chance! So it’s a close color, but somewhat less dusty, and a little brighter.
I would say that if Winnie The Pooh had a color, I think DMC 974 might just top it as the perfect shade though!
 

Should They Bring It Back?

This is just for a little fun, but as a color, DMC 974 is great. Offering a more vibrant gold, without having to drop into the likes of the satin threads. Yes, it’s 100% tied up in a contract with Disney and the likelihood that this thread will be released again is less than zero, and even if it did, it would be isolated to Winnie The Pooh patterns, but it’s a crying shame!
 
Have you been able to get your hands on this super rare thread? We’d love to know if so!
 
Happy stitching!
Lord Libidan