Valdani Pearl Cotton

I saw a friend smocking a Wee Care gown (a program of the Smocking Arts Guild of America) with perle cotton at a sewing retreat last February. I thought that was interesting instead of using 3 strands of cotton embroidery floss: perle cotton was faster and looked great. Now it's not a substitute for the floss as it doesn't lay flat (like you need for picture smocking). I had purchased a ball of really pretty pastel Valdani variegated #12 perle cotton (M20) on my trip to Keepsake Quilting a year ago....so I took it out and started smocking on a Wee Care gown,
I really liked it! It was fast. I showed the results to my SAGA Guild members and they loved the thread... and asked to buy some. So I tracked the Valdani pearl cotton down to a distributor in Canada. I learned that Valdani is made in Romania. It is colorfast. Valdani also manufactures floss, silk, pearl cottons of various sizes....but I'm only interested in #12 for now. The #12 perle cotton balls are solid (no plastic core in the center) and have 100 meters on them (that's 109+ yards). There are lots of solids and variegates, so I chose a few of the variegates to stock. Oh my!!! It was like Christmas when they arrived.

Here's a smocked sampling of the colors on Wee Care Bonnets.

And a closer look at each color: M20, a not-the-usual pastel mix: lime, yellow, blue and pink.

M24, light blues, teals and greens.

M38 consists of baby soft pastels: coral, green/turquoise and yellow. 

M49 is white, ivory and cream. This looks beautiful with ecru lace and ribbons.

And I added two more colors: M42 named "Summer Sky" because of the sky blues.

And O557 "Rose Suave", a very subtle baby pink variegate. I can see this on Wee Care gowns and smocked infant dresses.

They are available on my online store if you want to try something different and new with your smocking, or any other needlework that requires #12 perle cotton.