Embroidery floss primer, part 3: rayon

Rayon floss is great stuff. It's shiny and silky, and really wonderful to touch and play with. But it's not perfect. I've spent a lot of time working with it, so I'll share my experiences.

First, rayon floss makes absolutely beautiful tassels! (See the green tassel in the photo.) The strands separate out nicely but still maintain just a bit of crinkle, giving it some body. The color range is nice, though the availability in stores may be a bit limited (try online). If you use DMC floss, the colors are matched to the standard cotton floss (drop the "3" at the beginning of the number), though only one hundred of the colors are available in rayon (out of nearly five hundred).

Be very careful how you store rayon floss! Never use bobbin winders: it develops horrible kinks quickly, which are nearly impossible to remove. Instead, try something like DMC's Stitchbows. (I don't recommend the Storage Case! Mine doesn't stay closed, and the Stitchbows don't stay in their slots. The Stitchbows themselves, though, are great.) You can just leave the floss in skeins, but I end up with a huge mess that way.

As I said, the strands separate nicely on rayon floss–perhaps too nicely! They tend to separate while you're stitching (or trying to thread the needle), which can be frustrating. It may help to wax the ends with beeswax...

...But beeswax doesn't work well, overall. While cotton and linen wax great, rayon floss becomes rather ugly and kind of sticky. You can wax just the ends, but don't apply it heavily. Instead, use just enough to keep the ends together, then trim the waxed ends off when you're done.

It's also rather textured, giving it a tendency to snag. Since it can't really be waxed, it's limited in application. Basic pamphlet stitch works great; stab binding can yield some truly beautiful results. But skip long stitch, buttonhole, and most multi-signature forms.

Xandria