Battle of the Bobbins

I know most of you know what I'm talking about. I have three of the boxes with bobbin sized troughs like

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and the thread ends always end up tangled and a mess.Has anyone here tried one of these:
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? Sure looks like it would tame the tangles.NAYY just seeking other's experience, Beverly

Reply to
BEI Design
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I have to say I have not tried one of these, but it looks very similar to the bobbin holders that attach to spools of thread. I use those a lot, since they keep the thread ends from tangling. The spools & bobbins are stored in the plastic thread boxes. Instead of the spools standing up, they lay on the side, which takes more room, but I'd rather have a couple extra ones, than have the bobbins separate, and the ends always in a mess. Besides, no time is wasted matching thread on spools & bobbins. Emily

Reply to
Emily Bengston

I saw that, too. Interesting. At the price, it's worth a try, isn't it? I don't like the boxes like you have. I do have some of these:

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which work with my older metal bobbins for the Class 66, Class 15 and bobbins for 221/301 machines. I prefer old metal bobbins for those machines.

Reply to
Pogonip

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> and the thread ends always end up tangled and a mess.> >> > Has anyone here tried one of these:> >
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> ?> > Sure looks like it would tame the tangles.> >

I have a 3' X 3' section of the wall next to my sewing machine covered with a sheet of plywood into which DH drove long finishing nails at an angle to hold all my spools of sewing thread. I always buy at least two (and more if they are the small ones) of thread. I just went down and counted them: space for 386 spools of thread, almost all of them filled, and 77 bobbins. I do like to be able to start a sewing or alteration project without having to make a run for matching thread. ;-) I usually leave a few bobbins empty, but there is no way I could keep one bobbin per set of spools, even if I could afford that many more bobbins.

That's not counting the serger cones (132, mostly sets of three). Or the embroidery threads (315 spools of Madeira,

100 mini-cones of Robison Anton) upstairs in the embroidery room. Thank goodness embroidery is almost always done with either white or black thread in the bobbin and I use the "endless bobbin" with a mini-cone of bobbin thread feeding it. I have two of the endless bobbins, I suppose I should get a few more... just in case....

I'm reminded that my DSIL made me a fabulous holder for all my embroidery stabilizers. It's a 4' X 8" pieces of wood, into which he secured ten 12" long wooden dowels at an angle. Nicely painted white. It's perfect for keeping them in order and I can easily see when I need to get additional supplies.

Beverly

Reply to
BEI Design

I have about half-and-half, metal and plastic. I like the metal because they hold more thread, I like the plastic because it's easier to see how much thread is left on the bobbin while it's in the machine.

I guess I'll order a couple of the shoppersrule ones just to see how well they work.

Beverly, trying to organize my very disordered life....

Reply to
BEI Design

Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

On Tue, 12 May 2009 13:02:29 -0700 in alt.sewing, "BEI Design" wrote,

I use small plastic zip bags, 3" x 4" with the spool of thread and matching bobbin in one bag. Make sure the loose end is not sticking out, and it won't unwind. Then you can throw them all in any kind of box. You can put more than one spool in a bag provided that they are either identical or completely different colors.

Reply to
David Harmon

I don't think I want to deal with over 1,000 bags of thread/bobbins/minicones....

YMMV

Beverly

Reply to
BEI Design

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I like these:
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-- they come in several colors, so I can separate cotton> from poly threads, I can pick out a bobbin even if the> thing is jammed full, and the bobbins survive cat hockey.>> I do have one cat that can pick the bobbins out for cat> hockey, but if I hang them up, he doesn't bother. Thanks, Kay, those look very useful. I may order one of the Nancy Zieman ones and one of those to see which works best for me. I'm tired of dealing with unwound bobbins....

Beverly

Reply to
BEI Design

I use the quart size bags to hold similar color small spools of thread, but it would not work to have a bobbin for each spool for those who have a lot of spools. I have a bobbin box that will hold about 75 bobbins. Most are empty. I have two large 3 drawer, stacking plastic units to keep most of the cone thread, and zip lock bags of spool thread in. Oh, one drawer holds my most used patterns. Barbara in SC

Reply to
Bobbie Sews More

Beverly,

I've tried a few things but I ended up just pulling the end of the thread down into the thread near the end of the bobbin leaving about a half inch tail sticking out. It doesn't dent the thread enough to cause a problem and it's fast and easy. I use the plastic bobbin boxes and also have a spool holder for the extras. I have a couple of boxes for the bobbins for my 401, 500 machines, a box for my 301 and 221 machines and a couple more for the Kenmore machines. I think those are type 66 bobbins but not entirely sure. This method is not foolproof but works very well for the most part and is free.

Judie

Reply to
Judie in Penfield NY

And another thought is to try some plastic tubing cut so that it holds the bobbin fairly securely. The tubing can be cut to any length you like and you can use some small finishing nails to secure it to a board or whatever you like. This method works well too and is very inexpensive. You can buy the flexible tubing in any hardware store or even some pet stores.

Judie

Reply to
Judie in Penfield NY

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>> and the thread ends always end up tangled and a mess.>>>> Has anyone here tried one of these: >>
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? Sure looks >> like it would tame the tangles.>>>> NAYY just seeking other's experience,>>

Sorry, I don't think I made this very clear.

The tubing can either be cut small enough to fit around each bobbin, sort of like an open circle. Or you can cut lengths of tubing open and those lengths can then be nailed to a board or left as is and put in a drawer or whatever.

Judie

Reply to
Judie in Penfield NY

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