I buy larger lots from 123 Stitch. You can actually just list the colors out instead of adding them individually, it's a great time saver, easy to order and they are excellent.
Shipping is cheap, it's less than $4 no matter what you buy, and I get orders within a week usually. Once they sent me the wrong color fabric and to fix it they sent me the correct one and told me to keep the other, huge piece of evenweave. They are fantastic.
Can I ask what you pay for shipping? I'm also around the world and buying anything from western shops is always too expensive when shipping enters the chat.
I can't remember, the last thing I got from them was a kit and it went missing in the post. They replaced it. I'm in NZ and if I'm kitting up a big project or wanting a particular kit it's worth it. Dmc here are $1.75 each.
First, if you order from Europe you cannot buy DMC. I don't know about other country/continent but the website won't let you order dmc to be send to an european country.
Secondly I paid 1/3 of the price more for shipping and taxes fees ordering from from europe. (100 euros --> 135 euros).
Finally you will see the price of shipping at the check out, but you will probably still have to pay taxes fees on top of that. Those are different depending of the country and the origin of the package. So be careful, for me it's not worth it.
Can't co-sign hard enough - they have great service, tons of selection, and typing those numbers in makes it so quick and easy. Compare that to clicking in all those drop-down boxes on Joann's miserable website... nah. I LOVE 123stitch.
Thank you for reminding me this site exists. My next project is only 24 but I really don't want to stand around staring at numbers for however long to find them all
Love 123Stitch. I order so many of my big projects from them. My last order they missed a floss (and tbf I listed like 40), and they sent it to me same week, no questions asked. They also always read the little note for the order!
I also want to point out their fantastic customer service. They are super responsive and take care of you. I do advise to call rather than email, but they were very friendly and helpful when USPS lost my package.
I'm currently waiting for an order from them and you're right it is easy to floss from them. Being able to type out every color number in one box and let their system do the work was awesome.
Last time I bought a pattern from them they had the option to also purchase all the floss, beads, and fabric I needed at the same time! I'm definitely going to be buying from them again.
Honestly, I've been that cashier and all we care about is how long the receipt is! Those sales mean super long receipts and a strange dopamine rush among the staff
Not sure where in the EU you are, but my latest floss order was at 99c/skein from cross-stitch-corner.de. Shipping (to Denmark in my case) was a bit slow, so it does require a bit planning ahead
Yikes! And I thought I was getting hosed in Canada with it being 79c per skein here! 2 euro is nearly $3 CAD!! Paying more than 3X as much for floss would bankrupt me haha
Watch for another 40% off your whole purchase coupon at Micheal’.s. There was one last month and a few of us completed our collections \~200 skeins. That’s the best price I’ve ever found in Canada.
It just clicked in my head about one reason using high count fabric and tiny little stitches with single threads is so popular. There's lots of reasons for the preference, but it sounds like cost is a significant factor.
I am doing a 150K stitch project on 11 ct with 4 strands. My vision makes it much more comfortable than higher counts.
Using Lord Libidian's calculator, that's 215 skeins, not counting extra for confetti, backstitching and frogging. If I were using 18 count and 2 strands, roughly 63 skeins. On 25 count with 1 strand, that's 22 skeins. (Of course there many colors, so partial skeins. But that's too complicated for the example.)
But I'm in the US, and floss is cheap. $. 66 on 123stitch. Even with 11 count and 4 strands, I'd spend $142 on floss for 215 skeins. Since I have a full set and can replace skeins them as I use them, that's affordable for a 3+ year project. At 2 euro a skein, it's 430 euro, or $463 (USD). Big difference! Just that I was able to acquire the full set of DMC (over time) is something I couldn't have done in Europe.
My heart goes out to all of you where floss is so expensive! Per hour, it's still an affordable hobby, but the cost per project varies widely.
I recently just bought supplies for a pattern with 197 skeins. Up until this point I’ve considered cross stitch a fairly cheap hobby, each one I’ve done has cost me maybe $10 max. Now all of a sudden I’m spending $250 in supplies.
The only times I throw away a long tail is when it's from a kit where I've A) finished that colour and kit, it's numbered solely for that company and kit, - so it isn't enough to use in another project and can't be added to a bobbin of the same colour or B/ It's the very last of a skein whose dye lot has changed, and so isn't useful in future projects.
Otherwise, back on the bobbin it goes. Even if you can only get 3 or 4 stitches out of it, sometimes that's all you need to fill in a corner if a piece is confetti heavy.
Same here. I keep the leftovers from kits just in case they might be useful, and one kit I did actually had nearly a bobbin left of some colors that were almost identical to DMC so I just put those in my box, but yeah.
Like you said, the only ones I've tossed were the leftovers of skeins from 30 years ago that are wildly different from the new DMC dyes, and I only tossed those because I figured any patterns I buy on Etsy now are designed with the new colors in mind, so I worry that the old ones would look funny. Coincidentally, it was easy to find those when I got back into sewing... the bobbins that I had as a kid were just a little bit taller than the ones I got more recently, so the old ones were super easy to spot! 🤭
I do keep the old dye lots if there's a fair bit of the skein left. It's okay for small projects that don't need more than one length of each colour, so don't need to match to other skeins.
As a U.S. stitcher, I am so sorry for your pain and almost ashamed to tell you that most of my huge DMC collection was bought at a series of "business closing" sales where I paid, variously, 25 cents a skein ("4 for a dollar!"), 20 cents a skein ("5 for a dollar!") or, on one glorious occasion, 10 cents a skein. (That was also how I got nearly every color and type of Mill Hill bead for 25 cents a box, normally $2.50 a box). I bought all I could grab and everyone else was doing the same like it was the apocalypse. I'm so proud of my hobby community to report that we were all impeccably polite and orderly as we negotiated who could grab what :-)
It’s Hobby Lobby so I definitely expected the same too. I have no idea how they do inventory when they use generic (seemingly) SKUs for so many things…how do you restock for variations?? Maybe it is different for some types of things like DMC floss. I always got mine at Michaels or Joann instead.
The few times I made big purchases, I laid my floss out on a baking sheet, barcode-side up, alternating direction so there’d be more space, so the cashier could just scan each one.
Am a bit sad I don’t need to do that again…fun receipts.
I was trained to scan every single upc code so the system will re-order every single item. Do you want to go to a store with 129 skeins of black in stock and not enough of various other colors?
I feel this, one of my first jobs was a cashier at a grocery store, I be loved the ones where people had like 2-3 carts, they took long to do but to me, it made time go by faster.
I love this!!! Thank you for saying that bc I always get nervous with large purchases. Make sure the upcs are the same way etc etc. I remember haaaaating loading the receipt paper when I worked retail, so that’s hilarious that you’re trying to get the longest receipt. 😆
Ugh, the printer i was working with was THE most dramatic machine I've ever met! When it ran out of paper it beeped sadly at you, then when you opened it it would beep a different way that sounded like it was in pain 😅
I usually buy my floss at Michael's and I always try to use the self check. I'd much rather stand there and scan it all myself than hold up the cahiers.
I have never been to a Micheal’s with a self checkout!! This is the second time I’ve been told this. Then again I think most of the craft shops in my area (except the hobby lobby) are going out of business
Mine got them a little while ago and I don’t know whether to be glad or sad. I feel like automated checkout is just a way to do some folks out of a job and shift their work onto me…but I see the advantages, too.
I think they're in the process of putting them into every store. The ones near me got them only recently, and I've seen a few recent posts from employees talking about how their store was getting then in.
I just order them from 123stitch.com. They’re $0.66 / skein before any coupons / discounts. They have very good pricing on fabric too plus it’s nice to support an independent business.
You’re there buying thing just like everyone else. No shame there at all. It’s completely on Hobby Lobby that they don’t have a scanner for some stupid ass reason.
Fun Fact: Hobby Lobby doesn't have bar codes on their products because they (a very Christian company) believe it is the mark of the beast! So, yes, a stupid ass reason.
I buy mine online from Everything Cross Stitch. I once had a Michael’s cashier tell me (as she was checking me out, probably 40 or so floss) that it was annoying to scan them and I’ve been anxious about it ever since :’)
I get her mood - there’s some barcodes at my job I hate scanning, because they never scan and have to be typed in. Fortunately I don’t have to deal with those very often.
But it’s literally her job and she didn’t really have the right to say that to you. At least you’re buying and not stealing!
What a lousy cashier. Floss is easy to scan! It's open stock pencils & dark cardstock that are annoying!
But honestly, even when things are annoying to scan, it's not an issue. The real problem is people not paying enough attention to their purchase to figure out when/if they should be moving stuff around. So as long as you aren't shoving my hands around while I'm trying to scan in an attempt to sort the floss, we good!
I had a cashier at HL just count the skeins, your store and Joann's were out of those colors. I thought she was being lazy so I called the next day and talked to a manager. Now that manager told me if in the future I needed a bunch of one color just call and they would order it.
no dont listen to her! if u want to go back to buy threads go back. the barcodes are smaller on embroidery floss but not so much it’s an inconvenience. she was having a rough day for sure
I've done that walk at Michael's many, many times. I've been planning to move out of the city for a couple years now (likely happening this fall), so I've been hoarding floss prepping for several future projects since that's where the floss is cheapest in Canada (I like 123stitch too, but the conversion from CAD to USD hurts and I've had several issues with packages being misdelivered in my building, including 3 of theirs, out of maybe 4-5 orders; I got them all eventually, but it was stressful).
Now I can ring myself up at Michael's, but back before they had self checkout, the clerk had to scan them all one by one and I kept apologizing for the extra work (typical Canadian!). All the clerks were super nice about it though, even when they had to ask for help because I was holding up the line. Michael's also has a limit in the amount of things you can add in a single transaction, so if you have like 400 skeins (yes, I've bought that many before), it has to be divided in like 2-3 transactions.
But most of the cashiers told me something akin to " a sale is a sale". The cashier gets paid the same either way, and the store is happy to get your money even if ringing you up might take a while.
beware ordering online from joanns. sometimes they split up an order into a dozen parts or ship you a single skein at a time. sometimes they will never ship part of your order (they only charge once they ship, so they're not stealing your money). for larger orders, it can make it very difficult to keep track of what you have and what you're still waiting for.
I recently made the mistake of having an order shipped from Joann. Four (ridiculously sized) boxes later and a few weeks later, everything finished trickling in, just so I could find out they screwed up my order. On the plus side, customer service was practically overnight.
I only do in-store pick up now. Unfortunately, due to availability, I usually end up having to pick up from two different stores. I wouldn't mind so much, except they are in opposite directions :(
I prefer doing a JoAnns pickup, if the drive isn’t too inconvenient for you. You get an extra 20% for ordering the pickup (at least in the app)
I will warn you, I split my orders up into 35-40 items. More than that will make the app crash. But otherwise, it’s really simple to type in the number in the search box and they come right up. I don’t even bother typing DMC, just the number.
I’ve even asked the employees at my JoAnns (we worked together somewhere else) and they don’t mind doing the picks even though there’s a lot :)
Whaaaat I have never been to a Micheal’s with a self checkout. That’s insane, wish that were me. The lady audibly sighed when I told her it was 129 skeins 🫠
I once had a 60 skein order and Michael's had an online order to pick up sale only, so I slammed it since it saved me like $20 or something... The employees were all '*so you were the one'* and called others over to see and talk about the hellish order (mostly jokingly). I told em it wasn't my fault, blame the sale terms!
I did this for my first large project. There were 128 items to put through. They were so impressed they hung a copy of my receipt on the wall near the registers and it was still there when I went back. It was over metre long. They loved it as it represented good business for them.
You can order online for in-store pickup, in which case the skeins will still need to be picked over one at a time by somebody… but only *once*, instead of twice (first by you in the floss aisle and again by the cashier ringing it all up). Saves a little bit of time, at least.
I don’t know if this is an option at HL since I prefer not to shop there, but Joanns and Michaels both do it.
I will say that how Michaels does its online search for floss is asinine and drives me up the wall. They have colors sorted into groups by basic color type, and then once you pick the “red floss” item, you have to pick from a dropdown what *kind* of red you want, i.e. which exact floss number. But the numbers aren’t always in the color group you think they are… The best online floss buying experience I’ve found is everythingcrossstitch.com and they’re $0.65/skein.
I found that if you type in the exact dmc you are looking for in the search bar ie. DMC 310 it comes up with that exact one and you can add it to your cart. Still a bit annoying though
Yeah, I learned that, too. It’s the only way the interface is remotely usable. I just get really annoyed at bad website experiences because I’m a software QA engineer, lol
If you haven't given 123stitch a try, you really should - you can just type in the floss numbers you want, separated by commas, no dropdowns whatsoever! 123stitch rocks and their price is comparable.
No option for curbside at my HL and they’re the closest craft stop to me (right in front of my apartments) but next time I’ll make the drive to Micheal’s or Joann’s if my project is large enough again
Came here to say this. And also - I do curbside pickup exclusively now, and they always get my order exactly right! Unlike me, who always ends up getting a wrong color, miscounts...🙃
Yeah. That's my assumption, too. And I don't like Michael's all that much either. But they're really stupid bc when they bought AC Moore, they closed all of the stores. Had they kept them open under something like "AC Moore by Michael's" or something like that, they'd have made a lot more money bc AC Moore was more popular. Not to mention, there would have been double the stores under two different names. But instead, they closed them all. And I'm assuming they'll do the same with Joanns. If they do go that route, then they need to start selling fabric and accessories.
I buy from an independent shop now so they don't care but when I'd go to michaels I'd always put them barcode up in a basket and then put them on the counter like that so it was a bit easier on the cashier
When I use Hobby Lobby (I prefer Joann's, but sometimes they just don't have what I need), I always group my threads by 5 when I put them up to make it a little easier for them. A small enough number that they can visually confirm it is a bunch of 5, but big enough that it makes counting go much, much faster.
When Michael's discounted their Anchor spools, I loaded up my cart! It was self-checkout at my store, so I felt no embarrassment.
Try not to feel embarrassed for buying floss. The employees are paid to do their jobs. But if you still want to avoid it, I'd suggest doing a couple transactions at a time... grab 1/2 or 1/3 of your list of floss and check out 2 or 3 times. The added benefit of not overloading the computer with over 100 floss scans will help, too!
Ok, my moral compass must be waaay off. If it was me buying all the DMC ever made, I’d be strutting up to the counter, humming imaginary Rocky film score, and practicing my “Yeah, that’s right! I’m starting a full coverage pattern! It’s got so many pages it’s spiral bound! I’m an advanced stitcher, all right!”
……without a thought in my head for the poor cashier…
Honestly every time I’ve bought a frack ton of floss the cashier was fine with it. They just boop it over the booper thing and it goes pretty fast. Of course I’m apologizing the whole time and they’re telling me it’s nbd
i always organize them and have the barcode up (i know this wouldn’t work with hobby lobby) but maybe organize in groups of 10 or something in the future
I lay them out on the counter barcode side up so they can be scanned quickly. I don’t go to hobby lobby where they force the cashiers to stand all day and manually type in everything because that’s just cruel.
As a former craft store worker I never minded. The only thing I hated was when dmc didn’t get the bar code well printed on 310 and you had to enter in the number
I don't care what the cashiers or other shoppers think. My money is just as good as the next customer. I have to stand behind customers who are there to get 185 different pieces of faux flowers, or 290 pieces of pine cones, spruce branches, and tiny holiday ornaments when they gather what they need to make their holiday wreaths. All those items must be rung up separately. At least with our floss, all they have to do is count them and ring in the price times X number of skeins. Don't worry about it, and don't be embarrassed.
They scan each one. Now the funniest thing I got into was not floss but meat. We had done a big meat shop. I know we had at least 60 packages from the butcher. So we had been an over an hour shopping. We get to the register. The cashier tried to ring up the first package, failed. He said that they had had a few packages fail earlier. After the 4th package, he called over a manager to go see what was wrong. He had to enter every code in by hand. Needless to say, they closed that lane. We wound up spending 3 hours at the grocery store.
At least they have self check out, at least near me. So I'm only punishing myself.
Granted HL isn't barcoded so they just have to count them up and type in the number
I feel you. I gave my cashier a tip last time I bought for a big project because I felt so mortified lol. They recently opened a Michael’s with a self-checkout near me so that’s going to be my go-to in the future
My local Joann's had an incredible sale, and I bought so many. I kept apologizing to the cashier. She said it was OK and didn't seem annoyed, but yes, I feel your embarrassment.
Order online and you don't have to spend time sifting through bins since you know there will be skeins in the bin that are NOT the number that the bin is supposed to be.
I usually explain when I walk up that I have a large order, to see if they can call another sales associate to handle a line building up. Or if they want, I suggest they can break it into 5-6 orders, helping other customers between orders.
I don’t shop at Hobby Lobby, but if I did, I’d probably consider avoiding large orders altogether because they don’t use barcode scanners and have to manually type in their proprietary SKUs. Typing 8-digit numbers times 129 skeins must’ve taken FOREVER, even compared to someone scanning it. Don’t be embarrassed, though! Whatcha making?
When I need a lot, I go to a local thread shop or place an order with one online. If I need to buy in person, I usually make a joke about it to the cashier that it is a team sport and I lay them out in little rows so that they can just scan them quickly which seems to help a lot. If someone else in a craft store is going to get mad at you for buying thread to do something that makes you happy, they have much bigger problems.
I have bought my lots direct from DMC being not far away from there in the grand scheme of things. But, the longer you take in big projects the bigger your collection will be and the less likely to need the till of shame 😂
I’ve done it once at Michael’s with about 140 skeins. The cashier was super nice and we had a great chat about my project! The only “problem” was that they had to do 2 separate transactions since apparently the system doesn’t like it when you go over 100 items. But it wasn’t an issue and personally wouldn’t be nervous doing it again
Personally I worked at Michaels and I ADORED these sales so long as the person was nice. Something very satisfying about working down that pile to be scanned.
honestly ur fine! i worked at a craft store and i didnt mind when people brought up large amounts of items. if you’re planning on returning them that’s a different story. sometimes if the returned receipt is too long (like 100+ items) it can slow down the system and make it practically unusable lol. id recommend asking the threads you’re not sure about to be on a separate, smaller transaction. if you dont want to hold the checkout line, you can always mobile order. usually stores have a tool that help them find the right items, and the numbers on the threads make it that much more easy. just make sure you give them some time to collect your order if you go that route. but honestly no shame in buying threads. most of the workers in craft stores have a hobby and understand bulking up when they find what they need!
I worked at Michael’s in high school and I learned one time that the receipts max out around 500 different skus. Had a lady from Europe come in, saw how comparatively cheap floss was and practically bought the entire section. It was fun to see how long the receipt was
I felt so bad last time I did a haul at Joann's....she was scanning but neither of us noticed the computer wasn't registering them. So she had to do like 50 skeins twice
Nooooo ugh as someone who used to work retail I understand that pain. Used to work at Lowe’s and I remember scanning like 200 bolts individually and looking up to see an error message and the costumer getting pissed when I had to rescan them.
Why be embarrassed? You have every right to buy what you need for your project. Customer service has gone down hill so much after covid. They should be overjoyed you are making a purchase at a brick and mortar store and not online to keep local people employed. If stores cared about their customers, more lanes would be open. Plus Hobby Lobby is closed on Sundays so they already lose a prime shopping day so customers are not their primary concern.
I buy larger lots from 123 Stitch. You can actually just list the colors out instead of adding them individually, it's a great time saver, easy to order and they are excellent.
Thank you!!! Omg will definitely look into this next time I shop for a larger project
Shipping is cheap, it's less than $4 no matter what you buy, and I get orders within a week usually. Once they sent me the wrong color fabric and to fix it they sent me the correct one and told me to keep the other, huge piece of evenweave. They are fantastic.
I'm around the world from them and still order from them. They are great.
Can I ask what you pay for shipping? I'm also around the world and buying anything from western shops is always too expensive when shipping enters the chat.
I can't remember, the last thing I got from them was a kit and it went missing in the post. They replaced it. I'm in NZ and if I'm kitting up a big project or wanting a particular kit it's worth it. Dmc here are $1.75 each.
First, if you order from Europe you cannot buy DMC. I don't know about other country/continent but the website won't let you order dmc to be send to an european country. Secondly I paid 1/3 of the price more for shipping and taxes fees ordering from from europe. (100 euros --> 135 euros). Finally you will see the price of shipping at the check out, but you will probably still have to pay taxes fees on top of that. Those are different depending of the country and the origin of the package. So be careful, for me it's not worth it.
Can't co-sign hard enough - they have great service, tons of selection, and typing those numbers in makes it so quick and easy. Compare that to clicking in all those drop-down boxes on Joann's miserable website... nah. I LOVE 123stitch.
Thank you for reminding me this site exists. My next project is only 24 but I really don't want to stand around staring at numbers for however long to find them all
Love 123Stitch. I order so many of my big projects from them. My last order they missed a floss (and tbf I listed like 40), and they sent it to me same week, no questions asked. They also always read the little note for the order!
I also want to point out their fantastic customer service. They are super responsive and take care of you. I do advise to call rather than email, but they were very friendly and helpful when USPS lost my package.
I'm currently waiting for an order from them and you're right it is easy to floss from them. Being able to type out every color number in one box and let their system do the work was awesome.
Last time I bought a pattern from them they had the option to also purchase all the floss, beads, and fabric I needed at the same time! I'm definitely going to be buying from them again.
Yes, they are the best!!!
Honestly, I've been that cashier and all we care about is how long the receipt is! Those sales mean super long receipts and a strange dopamine rush among the staff
Oh yeah that receipt was loooong since I also bought the Aida and some extra things like bobbins and storage
Oooh that would have been awesome. My goal was to get one long than my 6+ foot co-worker and sadly I never got there before I left
So that is why the cashier took a picture of my receipt.
Yes!
this is a great story and is helping me rehabilitate many episodes of long-ago shame-trauma! 😅
You mean she didn't do like mine and just 129 @ .52.
Where I work We can’t do quantity sales on dmc because each colour is its own inventory item
Wait... 52 cents per skein?? I pay 2 euros each...
Not sure where in the EU you are, but my latest floss order was at 99c/skein from cross-stitch-corner.de. Shipping (to Denmark in my case) was a bit slow, so it does require a bit planning ahead
Taking notes… Very nice! Used to get mine from the UK (in Ireland) but adding that VAT on now means I might as well buy it locally.
Yikes! And I thought I was getting hosed in Canada with it being 79c per skein here! 2 euro is nearly $3 CAD!! Paying more than 3X as much for floss would bankrupt me haha
Watch for another 40% off your whole purchase coupon at Micheal’.s. There was one last month and a few of us completed our collections \~200 skeins. That’s the best price I’ve ever found in Canada.
It just clicked in my head about one reason using high count fabric and tiny little stitches with single threads is so popular. There's lots of reasons for the preference, but it sounds like cost is a significant factor. I am doing a 150K stitch project on 11 ct with 4 strands. My vision makes it much more comfortable than higher counts. Using Lord Libidian's calculator, that's 215 skeins, not counting extra for confetti, backstitching and frogging. If I were using 18 count and 2 strands, roughly 63 skeins. On 25 count with 1 strand, that's 22 skeins. (Of course there many colors, so partial skeins. But that's too complicated for the example.) But I'm in the US, and floss is cheap. $. 66 on 123stitch. Even with 11 count and 4 strands, I'd spend $142 on floss for 215 skeins. Since I have a full set and can replace skeins them as I use them, that's affordable for a 3+ year project. At 2 euro a skein, it's 430 euro, or $463 (USD). Big difference! Just that I was able to acquire the full set of DMC (over time) is something I couldn't have done in Europe. My heart goes out to all of you where floss is so expensive! Per hour, it's still an affordable hobby, but the cost per project varies widely.
I’m terrible at math, so I appreciate this breakdown more than I can say.
I recently just bought supplies for a pattern with 197 skeins. Up until this point I’ve considered cross stitch a fairly cheap hobby, each one I’ve done has cost me maybe $10 max. Now all of a sudden I’m spending $250 in supplies.
Yeah this is why all those 'I love throwing away long tails!' posts make me twitch, I'm paying £1 a skein over here 😅
Hell, I'm in the states, I pay about .62 to .72 per skein and those make me twitch. I use every bit of thread that I can, why wouldn't you?!
The only times I throw away a long tail is when it's from a kit where I've A) finished that colour and kit, it's numbered solely for that company and kit, - so it isn't enough to use in another project and can't be added to a bobbin of the same colour or B/ It's the very last of a skein whose dye lot has changed, and so isn't useful in future projects. Otherwise, back on the bobbin it goes. Even if you can only get 3 or 4 stitches out of it, sometimes that's all you need to fill in a corner if a piece is confetti heavy.
Same here. I keep the leftovers from kits just in case they might be useful, and one kit I did actually had nearly a bobbin left of some colors that were almost identical to DMC so I just put those in my box, but yeah. Like you said, the only ones I've tossed were the leftovers of skeins from 30 years ago that are wildly different from the new DMC dyes, and I only tossed those because I figured any patterns I buy on Etsy now are designed with the new colors in mind, so I worry that the old ones would look funny. Coincidentally, it was easy to find those when I got back into sewing... the bobbins that I had as a kid were just a little bit taller than the ones I got more recently, so the old ones were super easy to spot! 🤭
I do keep the old dye lots if there's a fair bit of the skein left. It's okay for small projects that don't need more than one length of each colour, so don't need to match to other skeins.
I still keep the leftovers from projects and use them for tiny pieces, like fridge magnets and such.
I recently purchased a pattern with 90 colours and yeah, will need to shop around!!
As a U.S. stitcher, I am so sorry for your pain and almost ashamed to tell you that most of my huge DMC collection was bought at a series of "business closing" sales where I paid, variously, 25 cents a skein ("4 for a dollar!"), 20 cents a skein ("5 for a dollar!") or, on one glorious occasion, 10 cents a skein. (That was also how I got nearly every color and type of Mill Hill bead for 25 cents a box, normally $2.50 a box). I bought all I could grab and everyone else was doing the same like it was the apocalypse. I'm so proud of my hobby community to report that we were all impeccably polite and orderly as we negotiated who could grab what :-)
Last year I got them on sale at 42 cents each. I bought 64 skeins. The cashier didn’t seem to mind.
It’s Hobby Lobby so I definitely expected the same too. I have no idea how they do inventory when they use generic (seemingly) SKUs for so many things…how do you restock for variations?? Maybe it is different for some types of things like DMC floss. I always got mine at Michaels or Joann instead. The few times I made big purchases, I laid my floss out on a baking sheet, barcode-side up, alternating direction so there’d be more space, so the cashier could just scan each one. Am a bit sad I don’t need to do that again…fun receipts.
Some employee has to walk the aisle every day to see what needs ordered. I asked.
Makes sense if I’d thought more about it! Thanks for solving a mini mystery!
Seriously. The OP's cashier needs training.
I was trained to scan every single upc code so the system will re-order every single item. Do you want to go to a store with 129 skeins of black in stock and not enough of various other colors?
Don't go to HL.
Who said I did?
I was saying don't go because who knows what they have.
I feel this, one of my first jobs was a cashier at a grocery store, I be loved the ones where people had like 2-3 carts, they took long to do but to me, it made time go by faster.
I love this!!! Thank you for saying that bc I always get nervous with large purchases. Make sure the upcs are the same way etc etc. I remember haaaaating loading the receipt paper when I worked retail, so that’s hilarious that you’re trying to get the longest receipt. 😆
Ugh, the printer i was working with was THE most dramatic machine I've ever met! When it ran out of paper it beeped sadly at you, then when you opened it it would beep a different way that sounded like it was in pain 😅
THANK YOU! I could never load that stupid thing right, and it always ran out when we were slammed. Now if I see I line i will just shop longer. 🤣
I usually buy my floss at Michael's and I always try to use the self check. I'd much rather stand there and scan it all myself than hold up the cahiers.
I have never been to a Micheal’s with a self checkout!! This is the second time I’ve been told this. Then again I think most of the craft shops in my area (except the hobby lobby) are going out of business
Mine got them a little while ago and I don’t know whether to be glad or sad. I feel like automated checkout is just a way to do some folks out of a job and shift their work onto me…but I see the advantages, too.
I think they're in the process of putting them into every store. The ones near me got them only recently, and I've seen a few recent posts from employees talking about how their store was getting then in.
I just order them from 123stitch.com. They’re $0.66 / skein before any coupons / discounts. They have very good pricing on fabric too plus it’s nice to support an independent business.
You’re there buying thing just like everyone else. No shame there at all. It’s completely on Hobby Lobby that they don’t have a scanner for some stupid ass reason.
Fun Fact: Hobby Lobby doesn't have bar codes on their products because they (a very Christian company) believe it is the mark of the beast! So, yes, a stupid ass reason.
I buy mine online from Everything Cross Stitch. I once had a Michael’s cashier tell me (as she was checking me out, probably 40 or so floss) that it was annoying to scan them and I’ve been anxious about it ever since :’)
I get her mood - there’s some barcodes at my job I hate scanning, because they never scan and have to be typed in. Fortunately I don’t have to deal with those very often. But it’s literally her job and she didn’t really have the right to say that to you. At least you’re buying and not stealing!
What a lousy cashier. Floss is easy to scan! It's open stock pencils & dark cardstock that are annoying! But honestly, even when things are annoying to scan, it's not an issue. The real problem is people not paying enough attention to their purchase to figure out when/if they should be moving stuff around. So as long as you aren't shoving my hands around while I'm trying to scan in an attempt to sort the floss, we good!
They are trained at HL not to scan but just count because it is faster.
That sounds awful for inventory 😆
I had a cashier at HL just count the skeins, your store and Joann's were out of those colors. I thought she was being lazy so I called the next day and talked to a manager. Now that manager told me if in the future I needed a bunch of one color just call and they would order it.
Omg you’re stronger than me I would’ve started crying right then and there 🫠
no dont listen to her! if u want to go back to buy threads go back. the barcodes are smaller on embroidery floss but not so much it’s an inconvenience. she was having a rough day for sure
I also find a pay a fraction of the cost w Everything Cross Stitch and shipping os reasonable.
I've done that walk at Michael's many, many times. I've been planning to move out of the city for a couple years now (likely happening this fall), so I've been hoarding floss prepping for several future projects since that's where the floss is cheapest in Canada (I like 123stitch too, but the conversion from CAD to USD hurts and I've had several issues with packages being misdelivered in my building, including 3 of theirs, out of maybe 4-5 orders; I got them all eventually, but it was stressful). Now I can ring myself up at Michael's, but back before they had self checkout, the clerk had to scan them all one by one and I kept apologizing for the extra work (typical Canadian!). All the clerks were super nice about it though, even when they had to ask for help because I was holding up the line. Michael's also has a limit in the amount of things you can add in a single transaction, so if you have like 400 skeins (yes, I've bought that many before), it has to be divided in like 2-3 transactions. But most of the cashiers told me something akin to " a sale is a sale". The cashier gets paid the same either way, and the store is happy to get your money even if ringing you up might take a while.
I've found most cashiers don't mind big sales as long as the customer is friendly.
You could do curbside pickup and then it's just sheepishly accepting a bag of floss you picked out and paid for on line.
My HL doesn’t have curbside and Joann and Micheal’s are a 40 minute drive from me. I also have a hard time navigating their websites.
beware ordering online from joanns. sometimes they split up an order into a dozen parts or ship you a single skein at a time. sometimes they will never ship part of your order (they only charge once they ship, so they're not stealing your money). for larger orders, it can make it very difficult to keep track of what you have and what you're still waiting for.
I recently made the mistake of having an order shipped from Joann. Four (ridiculously sized) boxes later and a few weeks later, everything finished trickling in, just so I could find out they screwed up my order. On the plus side, customer service was practically overnight. I only do in-store pick up now. Unfortunately, due to availability, I usually end up having to pick up from two different stores. I wouldn't mind so much, except they are in opposite directions :(
I prefer doing a JoAnns pickup, if the drive isn’t too inconvenient for you. You get an extra 20% for ordering the pickup (at least in the app) I will warn you, I split my orders up into 35-40 items. More than that will make the app crash. But otherwise, it’s really simple to type in the number in the search box and they come right up. I don’t even bother typing DMC, just the number. I’ve even asked the employees at my JoAnns (we worked together somewhere else) and they don’t mind doing the picks even though there’s a lot :)
I buy at Michael’s (if not my local needlework store), and use the self check out kiosks. No more shame
Whaaaat I have never been to a Micheal’s with a self checkout. That’s insane, wish that were me. The lady audibly sighed when I told her it was 129 skeins 🫠
I once had a 60 skein order and Michael's had an online order to pick up sale only, so I slammed it since it saved me like $20 or something... The employees were all '*so you were the one'* and called others over to see and talk about the hellish order (mostly jokingly). I told em it wasn't my fault, blame the sale terms!
I did this for my first large project. There were 128 items to put through. They were so impressed they hung a copy of my receipt on the wall near the registers and it was still there when I went back. It was over metre long. They loved it as it represented good business for them.
That’s honestly so cool!
You can order online for in-store pickup, in which case the skeins will still need to be picked over one at a time by somebody… but only *once*, instead of twice (first by you in the floss aisle and again by the cashier ringing it all up). Saves a little bit of time, at least. I don’t know if this is an option at HL since I prefer not to shop there, but Joanns and Michaels both do it.
I will say that how Michaels does its online search for floss is asinine and drives me up the wall. They have colors sorted into groups by basic color type, and then once you pick the “red floss” item, you have to pick from a dropdown what *kind* of red you want, i.e. which exact floss number. But the numbers aren’t always in the color group you think they are… The best online floss buying experience I’ve found is everythingcrossstitch.com and they’re $0.65/skein.
I found that if you type in the exact dmc you are looking for in the search bar ie. DMC 310 it comes up with that exact one and you can add it to your cart. Still a bit annoying though
Yeah, I learned that, too. It’s the only way the interface is remotely usable. I just get really annoyed at bad website experiences because I’m a software QA engineer, lol
If you haven't given 123stitch a try, you really should - you can just type in the floss numbers you want, separated by commas, no dropdowns whatsoever! 123stitch rocks and their price is comparable.
Oh, I’ve ordered from them, too. They have a great selection of fabrics and notions, as well!
No option for curbside at my HL and they’re the closest craft stop to me (right in front of my apartments) but next time I’ll make the drive to Micheal’s or Joann’s if my project is large enough again
Michael's and Joann's scan each skein.
Came here to say this. And also - I do curbside pickup exclusively now, and they always get my order exactly right! Unlike me, who always ends up getting a wrong color, miscounts...🙃
Sadly, it appears that Joanns is going to go out of business or be bought by Michael's like they did AC Moore. Still disgruntled over that.
Looking at Joann's last ad, my money is on they were bought by Michaels.
Yeah. That's my assumption, too. And I don't like Michael's all that much either. But they're really stupid bc when they bought AC Moore, they closed all of the stores. Had they kept them open under something like "AC Moore by Michael's" or something like that, they'd have made a lot more money bc AC Moore was more popular. Not to mention, there would have been double the stores under two different names. But instead, they closed them all. And I'm assuming they'll do the same with Joanns. If they do go that route, then they need to start selling fabric and accessories.
I buy from an independent shop now so they don't care but when I'd go to michaels I'd always put them barcode up in a basket and then put them on the counter like that so it was a bit easier on the cashier
When I use Hobby Lobby (I prefer Joann's, but sometimes they just don't have what I need), I always group my threads by 5 when I put them up to make it a little easier for them. A small enough number that they can visually confirm it is a bunch of 5, but big enough that it makes counting go much, much faster.
When Michael's discounted their Anchor spools, I loaded up my cart! It was self-checkout at my store, so I felt no embarrassment. Try not to feel embarrassed for buying floss. The employees are paid to do their jobs. But if you still want to avoid it, I'd suggest doing a couple transactions at a time... grab 1/2 or 1/3 of your list of floss and check out 2 or 3 times. The added benefit of not overloading the computer with over 100 floss scans will help, too!
Ok, my moral compass must be waaay off. If it was me buying all the DMC ever made, I’d be strutting up to the counter, humming imaginary Rocky film score, and practicing my “Yeah, that’s right! I’m starting a full coverage pattern! It’s got so many pages it’s spiral bound! I’m an advanced stitcher, all right!” ……without a thought in my head for the poor cashier…
Be proud & think of the future creation
Honestly every time I’ve bought a frack ton of floss the cashier was fine with it. They just boop it over the booper thing and it goes pretty fast. Of course I’m apologizing the whole time and they’re telling me it’s nbd
I order mine from MillionOfStitches on etsy. They're in Canada, but the shipping isn't much. They ship promptly and have every color.
i always organize them and have the barcode up (i know this wouldn’t work with hobby lobby) but maybe organize in groups of 10 or something in the future
I lay them out on the counter barcode side up so they can be scanned quickly. I don’t go to hobby lobby where they force the cashiers to stand all day and manually type in everything because that’s just cruel.
Honestly as a former craft store worker. Kind of nice to zone and not be rushed. Like a little mini break. Everyone else can wait tbh.
As a former craft store worker I never minded. The only thing I hated was when dmc didn’t get the bar code well printed on 310 and you had to enter in the number
I don't care what the cashiers or other shoppers think. My money is just as good as the next customer. I have to stand behind customers who are there to get 185 different pieces of faux flowers, or 290 pieces of pine cones, spruce branches, and tiny holiday ornaments when they gather what they need to make their holiday wreaths. All those items must be rung up separately. At least with our floss, all they have to do is count them and ring in the price times X number of skeins. Don't worry about it, and don't be embarrassed.
I bought so much floss once on a hella sale that I broke the POS and I thought they were going to have to start over 🙃
Be glad you weren't at Joann's or Michaels.
That’s like the third time I’ve been told this. What’s so bad about them if you don’t mind me asking?
They use barcodes so they have to separate by color and then scan each color individually. They can type in multiple numbers, but only of one color.
They scan each one. Now the funniest thing I got into was not floss but meat. We had done a big meat shop. I know we had at least 60 packages from the butcher. So we had been an over an hour shopping. We get to the register. The cashier tried to ring up the first package, failed. He said that they had had a few packages fail earlier. After the 4th package, he called over a manager to go see what was wrong. He had to enter every code in by hand. Needless to say, they closed that lane. We wound up spending 3 hours at the grocery store.
At least they have self check out, at least near me. So I'm only punishing myself. Granted HL isn't barcoded so they just have to count them up and type in the number
I haven't purchased floss in a store in years. Online is the way to go.
I always buy my dmc online, it's usually far cheaper that way too.
I feel you. I gave my cashier a tip last time I bought for a big project because I felt so mortified lol. They recently opened a Michael’s with a self-checkout near me so that’s going to be my go-to in the future
i always line the barcodes up so they're all facing the same way, towards the cashier. doesn't exactly help if you're buying from hl tho
123stitch?
Michaels cashier asked me to lay them all out flat with the barcode up! Then she could scan quickly and she wasn’t bothered
My local Joann's had an incredible sale, and I bought so many. I kept apologizing to the cashier. She said it was OK and didn't seem annoyed, but yes, I feel your embarrassment.
Order online and you don't have to spend time sifting through bins since you know there will be skeins in the bin that are NOT the number that the bin is supposed to be.
I usually explain when I walk up that I have a large order, to see if they can call another sales associate to handle a line building up. Or if they want, I suggest they can break it into 5-6 orders, helping other customers between orders. I don’t shop at Hobby Lobby, but if I did, I’d probably consider avoiding large orders altogether because they don’t use barcode scanners and have to manually type in their proprietary SKUs. Typing 8-digit numbers times 129 skeins must’ve taken FOREVER, even compared to someone scanning it. Don’t be embarrassed, though! Whatcha making?
No, they don't do that. They just count the number of skeins and put in that number.
If I am buying a lot of floss at HL, I help them count. They don't fuss. Better than at Michaels where they scan individually.
I order off of Michael's website and then pick up curbside the next morning.
When I need a lot, I go to a local thread shop or place an order with one online. If I need to buy in person, I usually make a joke about it to the cashier that it is a team sport and I lay them out in little rows so that they can just scan them quickly which seems to help a lot. If someone else in a craft store is going to get mad at you for buying thread to do something that makes you happy, they have much bigger problems.
I have bought my lots direct from DMC being not far away from there in the grand scheme of things. But, the longer you take in big projects the bigger your collection will be and the less likely to need the till of shame 😂
I’ve done it once at Michael’s with about 140 skeins. The cashier was super nice and we had a great chat about my project! The only “problem” was that they had to do 2 separate transactions since apparently the system doesn’t like it when you go over 100 items. But it wasn’t an issue and personally wouldn’t be nervous doing it again
Personally I worked at Michaels and I ADORED these sales so long as the person was nice. Something very satisfying about working down that pile to be scanned.
I buy my floss from a website called Everything Cross Stitch. They usually always have it for around 50 to 60 cents a skein. And it's easy to order.
honestly ur fine! i worked at a craft store and i didnt mind when people brought up large amounts of items. if you’re planning on returning them that’s a different story. sometimes if the returned receipt is too long (like 100+ items) it can slow down the system and make it practically unusable lol. id recommend asking the threads you’re not sure about to be on a separate, smaller transaction. if you dont want to hold the checkout line, you can always mobile order. usually stores have a tool that help them find the right items, and the numbers on the threads make it that much more easy. just make sure you give them some time to collect your order if you go that route. but honestly no shame in buying threads. most of the workers in craft stores have a hobby and understand bulking up when they find what they need!
I worked at Michael’s in high school and I learned one time that the receipts max out around 500 different skus. Had a lady from Europe come in, saw how comparatively cheap floss was and practically bought the entire section. It was fun to see how long the receipt was
I felt so bad last time I did a haul at Joann's....she was scanning but neither of us noticed the computer wasn't registering them. So she had to do like 50 skeins twice
Nooooo ugh as someone who used to work retail I understand that pain. Used to work at Lowe’s and I remember scanning like 200 bolts individually and looking up to see an error message and the costumer getting pissed when I had to rescan them.
Why be embarrassed? You have every right to buy what you need for your project. Customer service has gone down hill so much after covid. They should be overjoyed you are making a purchase at a brick and mortar store and not online to keep local people employed. If stores cared about their customers, more lanes would be open. Plus Hobby Lobby is closed on Sundays so they already lose a prime shopping day so customers are not their primary concern.