My experience has been that the colors definitely vary from one company to another and the Fiddler's pattern on the fabric can also be more noticeable on some over others. Charles Craft makes a fiddler's oatmeal, fiddler's lite oatmeal, and a regular oatmeal and there is a definite difference between these colors. I have all 4 of these colors (including the Wichelt) but cannot find my Wichelt Oatmeal Fiddler's to compare against the Charles Craft Fiddler's fabrics. If I remember the Wichelt fiddler's color right, it is a bit lighter with a DMC equivalent to ecru or DMC 3024, and I felt the Charles Craft regular Fiddler's Oatmeal just a touch closer in shade to the DMC 822, which is a little more tan. I think the Charles Craft Fiddler's Lite Oatmeal (about the equivalent to DMC 712 and a little lighter than ecru) is probably closer to the Ecru color like the Wichelt, but looks close to a fiddler's on an off white background (very light). If your design has a lot of white in it, I would definitely go with the darker fiddler's since the white stitching may not show up as well on the lighter fabric. I hope this helps.