I have a bit of an obsession with B&Q’s storage section, which I will elaborate a bit more on in some upcoming posts, but I will admit that my threads and bobbins were in a bit of a guddle.  All my threads were in a drawer which was really too small to fit them in any semblance of real order, and my bobbins were all crammed in a box, so with both setups I was unable to see what I already had, and it was hard to find things I knew I did have.  It was time to get organised, so I thought I’d take you on my journey just in case you also have such an unholy mess.

The bobbin part came to a head a couple of weeks ago when my ‘Bobbin Along’ theme from the #sewprompted challenge came around.  I realised I had over 100 bobbins and I really needed to sort them out, so while in my slightly sleep deprived state of over work last week, I started looking up all sorts of suggestions that people had given me, until ultimately I found what I thought would be best for me.  I happened to find it on Amazon though, and then it had one of those ‘people often buy this product with XYZ’ things on it and I ended up with thread spool storage too.  Then I needed Dymo labelling tape after my marathon sessions a couple of weeks ago (and then ordered a lot more in even more sleep deprived states on other evenings.  I can label well into next decade now, I bet!)

For the bobbins I decided to go with the Clover Stack ‘n’ Store Bobbin Tower  (a Nancy Zieman product), each of which holds 30 bobbins.  One of the most irritating things from my search was the fact that it was hard to find out how many some of the options actually held, although I can’t imagine why it would be such a state secret!  Still, I ordered 4, so I had room to grow a little more and separately, from another shop, I ordered some of the Smart Tulips Bobbin Clamps to hold my most commonly used bobbins on the side of my machine (which haven’t arrived due to an order mix up where I received red thread instead…).

The great thing about the Stack ‘n’ Store towers is that you can pull it all apart and rearrange them, and in my case, while dividing up the bobbins by colour, it allowed me to take a couple of rings from a less used section in the colour wheel to add to my neutrals section.  Out of the box a tower is just over 3″ tall, so it’s not like you’re using up a lot of sewing room real estate for them.  Although you can’t see it here, each of my bobbins is also labelled with sharpie so I know exactly what thread is on it, and the manufacturer/thread type.

For my thread spools I went with a couple of Art Bin Super Satchel Boxes With Removable Thread Trays.  So succinctly named, don’t you think?!  There are actually a few different Art Bin thread options, but this is a nice low profile size at 3″ x 14 1/2″ x 14 1/2″ (or thereabouts) which means that I can store them without taking up too much space.  Also, because of how they’re designed, the thread sits on spikes that hold them in place when the box is stored vertically, which is what I’ve done.  I split mine out so that one box is for my Aurifil supply for quilting, and the other is my Gutterman’s supply for bag making (and there’s a few old bear making options in there too!).  While there’s some space left in each box, I left the waifs, strays, and misfits from my thread collection in the drawer.  I rarely use them anyway, but now that the drawer’s almost empty, I can find them better for when I do!

I have plans to share a few more organising tips, so let me know if there’s something in particular that you’d like me to look at.