Please, can someone direct me to Meganne's tip for storing bobbins? I've been hunting for it but I'm not getting anywhere.

Wow!!!! what a wealth of new knowledge I have today. I looked at all the links yesterday and then again this morning. I now have enough information to have a lot of fun trying the new ideas. I do have a 25-bobbins plastic box already in use for normal sewing threads for different machines and I have a round ring to hold many HVDII bobbins also for normal sewing.

However, my embroidery bobbins all have tiny fat elastic hair ties that fit the bobbins perfectly - most of them colour matched - but they are still in a state of 'tossed mess' in a box. Occasionally a thread will escape from one of them and find its way stuck to my fingers and unwind itself as I move away, or hang out of the box just to annoy me.

Last year was the Year of the Big Cull fabric-stash-wise..... it didn't work.
This year is the Year of the Big Tidy-up in my sewing room. See, I'm giving myself a year to do it. I think I'll start with the bobbins.

Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to share your information. You've all been a great help to me.
AlmaG.

Alma. You just cut the tubing lenghtwise. That will enable you to wrap it around the bobbin. The tubing is made from plastic and soft. I just recently posted the result of how I had used it. Here is a link. Hope this helps a bit

2 comments

by almag 12 Apr 2011

Thank you, crafter2243, for this link.

I just wondered....if you want the middle bobbin can you take it out of the tubing easily or do the others pop out as well when you open the slit in the tubing?

The way you've organised your bobbins is excellent, and so attractive.
Organising bobbin and spool colours is a great feeling, a bit like organising folded fabric.
Alma.

by crafter2243 12 Apr 2011

Yes you can take them out easily. You could leave a little space between each bobbin if you want to. This works pretty much like those rings that are being sold for bobbins.

I've seen this clear tubing at Bunnings too (on what looks like a huge black bobbin lol). Take your bobbin with you so you get the right size (diameter of tubing). Its sold by the metre but I dont remember how much it was. A single split down the tubing would mean you could pop bobbins inside. I think the "second split" would refer to cutting the tubing into lengths - say 10 bobbins per length, for easier storage in a chinese take-away container for example.

I dont have many bobbins so I only use a small container similar to a small fishing tackle box, which my local IGA happens to sell :) I have 3 different brands of sewing machines, which have different bobbins. (The containers are also available at Bunnings in lots of different sizes - the 18 compartment ones are great for all sorts of small storage and you can move the dividers around in some - ok off topic now, sorry heh Bunnings is so much more than a hardware shop for us crafters :) xXx

2 comments

by almag 12 Apr 2011

Great!! Thankyou, danababes.... for the help and for the nudge to go to Bunnings. I've been wanting an excuse to visit Bunnings for ages. I'm a dead-set goner for compartmented organisers, too. I saw a beauty in Sam's in Ballarat last week and I should have bought it - the $12 price tag put me off but I know it would have been perfect for my sewing table, and now I'm really mad with me for not getting it. It had three or four good-working drawers and would have replaced my messy plastic basket by my machine.

I will have fun today at Bunnings on my way into town.
Alma.

by danababes 13 Apr 2011

OO I love a trip to Bunnings :) but its a 3 hr drive from where I live now .. gotta love the rural life lol. Is "sams" Sam's Warehouse? I've heard of it, but I think our equivalent over here (WA) would be either Crazy Clarks or Red Dot - same 3hr drive tho so I dont get to go often, but its a great adventure when I do get to go :D Have a great time shopping! Oh and those plastics drawers? I'm a sucker for all things plastic and storage, go back & get them lol xXx

I found another tip that I thought was useful today too... put a removable round sticker dot on your bobbin top to hold your thread "tail" in place so you don't have a bunch of tails running around. They suggested using the ones for reinforcing paper with the holes in the middle and running your tail through the hole. Hope you got the visual on that one.... I'd send you to the original link - but I don't remember where I read it...

1 comment

by almag 12 Apr 2011

Thankyou, Katrina - yes, I can visualise that. It sounds good in theory and you'd need to remove the dot before using the bobbin in the machine. The tails from the bobbins can sure be annoying, especially if I catch one without knowing and walk off with it.
Alma.

Here is a PROJECT post by teresanta:

3 comments

by babsie 12 Apr 2011

Thanks for showing us.

by almag 12 Apr 2011

Hi Shirlene - I've had a good look at these links.
Thank you for taking the time to post them. I found them really helpful.
Teresanta cuts the tubing twice to make it look like those round ring bobbin holders. It's wide enough to just hold the bobbins in place but not let the others escape if you wanted the middle one.
Alma.

by shirlener88 13 Apr 2011

http://answers.cuteembroidery.com...

Hi Alma, Not sure if this is exactly the same as Megannes, but I went into Mitre 10 in Stirling and bought 1 mtr of 20mm clear plastic tubing. Slit it with a Stanley type knife only once the length of the tubing. I think you would cut it into lengths depending on where you wish to store it. I have found to slit this just the once the bobbins fit snugly. Cheers, Lyn

2 comments

by almag 12 Apr 2011

Thankyou, Lyn - do you have to push the bobbins out from the other end because plastic can cling or do they slip out easily the way they would with hard plastic?
Alma.

by mi30kaja 12 Apr 2011

They slip out easily when to take them out but don't seem to fall out of their own accord.

Here is a POST by Meg:

1 comment

by almag 12 Apr 2011

Thank you, Shirlene - what a wealth of information you have opened up for me.
Alma.