I am new to embroidery and keep hearing about prewound bobbins and how wonderful they are because of the tightness of winding and because of how much more thread is on them. Once they are used, what are people doing with the leftover bobbin casings? Also, what is the general thought on the 'Bobbin sidewinders' that you can buy from Wal-mart, Michael's, Target, etc.?

I use the plastic sided prewounds and love them. I save the empty ones to wind the different colored threads on them for FSL or projects that need the same color on both sides. I do have, and always use, my sidewinder to wind bobbins (embroidery colors or regular sewing). I heard they have a new deluxe version of the sidewinder coming out that will better hold larger spools, etc. but I have not seen it in stores yet.

I have a side winder and used it all the time with my Bernina but now that I have the Janome 11000SE I wind on the machine....it has two motors so I can wind bobbins at the same time that I am embroidering....so as soon as one empties I refill it and I keep a spool of bobbin thread on the machine all the time, just for this purpose......

by the way, I just re-wound one of the bobbins on my machine and after I got it started, I couldn't believe how quick it went. :)

i was thinking of trying a craft with them myself. I saw a snowman made using small spools of empty thread for the arms and legs and thought why not bobbins too. I am sure there are many things to be done with them.

Dont know if my machine would take them I just rewind my bobbins , they are metal ones, as they become empty and always have a few filled on standby. Helen

I love the prewound bobbins. I have some right now that are paper sided but much prefer the plastic ones. I do have the sidewinder. I use it for my type 15 bobbins for the Janome machine. I also have a machine that uses L sided bobbins and find it does not work with those. I have used it often and find it works well for me.

1 comment

by jkdavis1996 13 Dec 2010

thank you so much...I think my bobbin is the L sided bobbin and I would have been so disappointed to buy the sidewinder and not be able to use it.

I have abobbin sidewinder and do like it, although I don't use it as much as I had thought I would as when I start a project if it isn't fsl I'll wind a dozen or so bobbins with regular bobbin thread.

I usually save my bobbins for rewinding for FSL so the top & bottom thread are the same. I always check for cracks in the side of the plastic now. When I first started rewinding I didn't do this and wound a few bobbins that disintergrated when I took them off the winder

I also have a sidewinder and just love it. It doesn't seem to be any trouble and it winds more thread than my machine does as it has an override where you can just keep your finger on the start botton and it keeps winding. Of course you have to watch not to over wind when doing this.

Hope you are enjoying your new hobby.
Mary

1 comment

by jkdavis1996 10 Dec 2010

Yes...and have found myself collecting so much knowledge and lovely 'projects' from this one website. It's GREAT!!

Thank you for asking this question. I have been wondering if it is better to use pre wound or regular bobbins.

My bobbins are paper sided so I toss the center, I have very small children/babies in the house and am afraid to use for anything else due to choking hazards.;)

1 comment

by danababes 10 Dec 2010

When your children get a little bit older (toddler to preschool) they're going to love threading things. You could put all those bobbin centres in a jar so that they're safe from your children right now, but when they're older they could thread together onto shoe laces (the beginnings of learning how to sew), and by then you'd probably have collected a lot. :) xXx

I think you should save your money and don't buy the Sidewinder. I bought one for my daughter and myself and it is more trouble than it is worth. I use the left over bobbin casings for colored thread that matches my top thread if I need it.

I do not use prewound bobbins but I donate all my empty thread spools to a local school/ nursery. They use it for printing, threading, counting building etc.

1 comment

by jkdavis1996 10 Dec 2010

awesome

Hi , I have the sidewinder and use often . I wind my empty cases while I'm embroidering out a design. It's ture that it isn't as tight as the prewound ones but there is still alot of thread on it.ANd there is less wear and tear on your machine. I have two bobbin cases I try to have one full all the time with prewound bobbins so that I 'm ready for the time.
Edie

Hi,
I truly love the NEBS prewound bobbins. I save a few of the empty bobbin cases to wind colors to match the upper threads in a design. On some items, the embroidery looks nicer if the bottom and top threads match. I have never felt that the "Bobbin sidewinder" would be worth purchasing, when in just a few minutes I can wind several bobbins on my machine. I do not know for fact, but have read that the Sidewinder was more trouble than it was worth, as to having problems with the thread wound too tightly.
Angel

3 comments

by lenamae 10 Dec 2010

I have one but have never used it.

by lenamae 10 Dec 2010

I have one but have never used it.

by annafaye 21 Aug 2011

I save my empty bobbins, I use the L plastic type. I take them apart and save the center piece with the flat piece attached to put into my spools of thread that do not have a way of winding the excess thread. You can super glue them in the spool and then wrap your excess thread around them. Sure helps clean up a thread mess.

I buy the Coat's brand. 144 in a box. They have the cardboard sides, so I just toss mine when they are empty.

2 comments

by lenamae 10 Dec 2010

You can save the centers of the paper bobbins and use yarn and sew them to gether and make nice hot pads to sit hot dishes on.

by jkdavis1996 10 Dec 2010

Now that is ingenious...did I spell that correctly?