Karen over at Sew Many Ways has a post and link party up for people to share how they organize and store their thread and bobbins. For years and years, I made do with those plastic boxes with the plastic rods for storing my thread and the small plastic boxes with the rounded spaces for my bobbins. When I was getting ready to sew something, I’d first have to search through those boxes for the thread and then search through the bobbin boxes trying to find the bobbin to match it.
But that all changed when Dave refinished two vintage sewing machine cabinets to house my sewing machines. They each have three drawers and when Dave was refinishing the first cabinet, I asked him if he could turn two of the drawers into thread storage for me.
When he was drawing up plans, he asked how long I wanted the rods for the thread and I replied that they needed to be long enough to hold my tallest spool of thread without it flopping about. It was then I realized that since we were custom making this, we could cut the rods any length we wanted… so I asked Dave to cut the spool rods long enough to hold the spool and it’s matching bobbin.
Now unfortunately, I can’t go take photos of those drawers filled with thread and bobbins because as many of you know, all our furniture is in storage, but I did go back through my blog and found this photo of the thread drawer insert that Dave made for my Art Deco Singer Sewing Machine cabinet.
To make the spool holders, Dave cut a piece of wood to fit the bottom of the drawer, drilled holes for the rods and then inserted copper rods cut to length into the holes. This made the spool holders removable if I ever decide that I need those drawers to store other things.
Between the Retrofitted Kenmore cabinet and the Singer Art Deco cabinet, I have four drawers with these inserts. I keep my regular threads in one and my quilting thread and some of the thicker upholstery thread in the other.
3 Comments
Stephanie Holmes
January 1, 2019 10:41 amI keep my many, many spools of thread in a box of little drawers intended for A4 stationery. The spools lie on their sides in slots made of folded cardboard. Being on their sides, all the colours are visible at a glance.
There are five shallow drawers which are classified by colour: eg reds and oranges, yellows and greens, blues and purples, light neutral and dark neutral.
Robin (RsIslandCrafts)
July 25, 2012 4:41 pmI love the fact that you can take the whole thread storage out of the drawer if you need to. I have a few spools left in a couple of those plastic storage boxes but I’ve recently switched to the bigger spools from Connecting Threads and they don’t fit very well. Right now they are in some Chinese take out plastic tubs but I plan on buying some plastic storage containers so they all can fit into one or two boxes. I love being able to see all the colors of my thread.
Dee
July 22, 2012 9:06 pmI LOVE this idea. I am still working with the plastic boxes and having to match bobbins to spools. I love this and am sure I can find a way to make it work.
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