Finding the right skin tone threads can be VERY hard, normally resulting in a super pink face, or a washed out face. However, with the sheer volume of threads out there, its not actually that hard to create really realistic skin tones.
We’ve created the above table so you can look up the skin tone you want to stitch and see both highlight and shadow thread colors for DMC to go with it. Equally, you can go down the table to see darker skin tones progressively.
With this, you can edit existing patterns to match skin tones you want, or you can make your own patterns with quality skin colors.
Thank you so much for making these wonderful charts. What colors would you suggest for Middle Eastern skin and hair.
Middle Eastern skin tends to vary quite a lot, but they tend to be bronze based, so I would go with something like 738 for a generic skin tone.
For hair, they tend to have black or brunette coloring, so I would go with a darker brown.
Hope that helps!
Yes! It does help! And I greatly appreciate you responding to me so promptly.
I have my basic skin tones picked out. The subject is wearing glasses. What corresponding colours should I use? The colours I’ve picked out are 758, 3771 & 3778.
Most glasses don’t alter the colors behind them, so I would personally leave them as the same tones you’ve picked, but if you wanted to make a point of the glasses, you could change the skin color under the glasses to something lighter. I would suggest 754 based on the colors you’ve picked.
Lifesaver (well, ok, Christmas stocking project saver:)! Bookmarked, thank-you for presenting this valuable information.
The kit I bought is of my great granddaughter and they sent me White for the skintone then a really dark color for the shading . So I changed the skintone to be a little less bright so I’ve already used the #948 and am not going to tear it out again . In that case what colors would I use ? Don’t want to throw it away .
Hi,
In which case, I would use 3770 as the highlight and 754 as the shadow. It will appear lighter than you might like, but it’ll have a nice high/low distinction.
If l used #948 for skintone what Olof # should I use for fair highlights and shadows ?
Hi Thelma,
We think that 948 is a little too light for a skintone in our tests. It looks nice on the slein, but in real situations makes people look super pale.
WE would either suggest the 754, 948, 3771 run for a pinker skin, or the 739, ecru, 738 for a slightly more tanned look.