Some time back I needed to use some thread I only had wound on a bobbin as the top thread in my Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen. As the spool rods are too fat for the bobbins, I came up with a dodgy system using painters tape and a paintbrush. Since I posted that hack, I’ve read about another person’s method, using what we used to call ‘pipe cleaners’ in Australia but that I understand are called ‘chenille sticks’ in the US.
So I tried it and it works fine for a bobbin spool. However, I didn’t have as much luck with a normal spool of thread as it ended up wrapping itself into the chenille bit and snapping. That’s probably more user error than it is the fault of the ‘design’!
Here’s my setup; the bobbin thread comes off from underneath the bobbin, not over the top — I think that’s where I went wrong with the other spool of thread I tried with this:
And no, the bear doesn’t come with the machine 😉 He was a gift from one of my quilting buddies.
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 
[…] AND the bottom thread. Why? because the colour match was perfect. So I slipped the bobbin onto a hacked thread holder and […]
I live in the US and I call them pipe cleaners. Never heard of chenille sticks. Great work.
cool idea!
Great idea! I store unused thread from projects on cheap plastic bobbins and re-thread it into good bobbins as I need it. This hint will save me from the rewinding step on all my machines!