When I started embroidering, I only saw people wrapping their threads on bobbins - so, I did the same, but hated those kinks in the thread. A couple of years ago, I learned how to pull correctly from the skein and ditched the bobbins. For ease of finding the colours I am after, I store my skeins in small resealable, snack bags- punched a hole & store them on a binder ring by colour number. An added benefit is that I can store unused strands back in the bag so they are safe.

I like winding the thread onto bobbins! I can just chill out and watch videos while I'm doing it, during those times when I don't feel like doing anything else. If the thread is a bit kinky, I dampen it in water and drape it over something to dry before using it. It straightens out pretty good.

Great idea thank you I'm just starting up so all tips much appreciated Julie

I really like your teaching, it’s been years since I have done embroidery. You brought it all back to. Your instruction makes it so easy.

I agree whole-heartedly. I'm disabled and have precious few spoons to start with. BUT, I have 4 projects in the pipeline that have over 100 colors EACH. In this case ... if I wrap them, I don't have to spend all my time hunting for the right color **all DMC cotton. Long term storage is numeric in quart-sized zippered, food storage bags, 15 colors per bag. And they all live in a picnic basket!

I love my cotton thread wound on the bobbins, I find them much easier to work with.

I like having them organized on bobbins, but I mostly cross stitch and don’t use as much os worry about wrinkly threads, BUT one more thing about wrapping them on bobbins - it causes your threads to knot more when there are kinks in them. I always have to cut off the very tip of my threads (where it slides into the slit on the bobbin to secure it) or else I’ll keep getting knots almost every time I pull thru!

I always wondered why people rolled their threads around those cards... glad to know I'm not missing out haha

I think one of my favorite things about embroidery is organizing the floss 😂

Such great timing! I was wondering about this after seeing you mention not to wrap your threads in another video! thanks so much!

I suppose if you really must wrap your threads then it would be wiser to use a round shape bobbin (or other) style system but I prefer your way of just keeping them in their original form in a suitable container x

I have a daughter with High Functioning Aspergers who loves, Loves, LOVES, gently winding my DMC onto bobbins, fully labelling them and arranging in colour graduation. Yes, they get a bit kinky, but it gives her such pleasure. (I will explain about the metallics, and see if we can put them back into skeins.)

There are small plastic bags to store the skeins. They have labels for the number and a metal ring to keep them in order.

yes I got tired of wrapping all the time to the point I hate it

I de-bobbinated mine a while back and put them all on floss drops.

Thank you! 😊

The kinks come out of the cotton after a just few minutes. It doesn't appear to damage the thread from what I've seen. And it allows me to store my floss in a fraction of the space while making it easier to find the colors I want. Bobbins are cheap ($25 for 1000 plastic bobbins or $13 for 1000 cardstock bobbins) and It only takes me around 45 seconds to wind a skein. I will admit that most of my silk is on spools (Access Commodities, the North American distributor of Au Ver à Soie threads, uses very nice spools) although I do have a few skeins of other silk threads on plastic bobbins. I haven't been using silk long enough to determine whether or not it's a problem, but I don't expect any issues. And obviously my metal threads are all on spools or in bags.

Thank you.

Thank you for saving me from more winding.........it is quite the job and I keep running out of carrier space.

I've never even thought about using those cards. My grandmother just had her embroidery floss in a bag. I have most my sewing stuff in a tackle box and those craft boxes with the removable shelf for my bigger items or works in progress.

You’ve just saved me time and moneeeyy!!! I’m keen on starting on embroidery but just looking through instagram and pinterest I thought I’d have to buy those bobbins, spend hours winding them or even invest in a bobbin winder…so overwhelming! Now I’m happy to just keep my skeins in a biscuit tin ❤️❤️❤️. Thank you so much for your videos, I’m learning a lot!

Annie's Keepers are a life saver. You should try them out. 🙂 Your way is great for small projects but for storing a full set of DMC and larger projects it would make things difficult. (Searching for the # needed) With Annie's I love that I can pull a single thread, never needing to remove the thread from the holder.

If I had known this tip a few months ago when I bought a few boxes of someone else's thread collection of course they were mostly wound onto bobbins. On the up side if there is one, they are all neat and tidy with no stray thread blowing in the wind. I hate messy. Of course I will be mindful of threads that are not cotton and keep them as neat and tidy as possible.

I won’t be wrapping anymore, thanks great top tip.😅😆👍

I learned to keep them in the skein back in the "dark ages" of the 60's. If I were to wind embroidery thread it would be onto empty sewing thread spools so I could stack them on a holder and quickly pull off what I need.

Very good so glad I found you

I need to figure something out because I can look at a skein and it turns into a knot ball but I also don’t relish winding all the bobbins. Ugh.

Hello Sarah. I'm excited about starting to learn hand embroidery. Can you kindly tell me what thread I need to use especially when applying sequins? Also, I'm wondering if nylon thread and polyester thread can be used for hand embroidery too. Thanks in anticipation of your reply.

Personally, I think its relaxing to wind bobbins, label them, and arrange them in numerical order. I'll keep my metallics on skeins, though!

Great tip! Thank you for this video!

Sarah, what do you do with your unused cut strands? For example, if you have used 2 strands of a length of DMC thread and have 4 strands left over. I don't like to discard the remaining strands, but wonder what's the best way to store it (along with its colour code) for use another time? If you have an ingenious solution I would love to know!

Thank you for your fabulous tip I appreciate it so much I have been making friendship bracelets and this will save so much time and energy

I only learned about the method for pulling a thread out of a skein about a week ago from your other video, Sarah, so I have a lot of skeins which I have unwrapped and wrapped back and the method won't work on them. But I tried it on some new skeins and it's a great help. I also make friendship bracelets for which wrapping the thread onto a bobbin is a life saver, so I have quite a few of those as well. Like others who have asked this question, I would like to know how you store the unused strands though. x

I hate having to try and sort through skeins to find the thread I’m looking for, so I loop them over a simple stitch holder. I sort them onto the stitch holder by brand, fiber type and then arrange them by color. The skein stays intact, they fit fit into a small space, they don’t get tabled up and I don’t have to go digging for days to find what I want. Highly recommend! 😊

And I just bought 300 clothespins. Lol. Thank you!

For me, I'd rather not dig through a box of hundreds of colours trying to find the one colour I need lol. Bobbins work for me, but I'm glad this works for you!

Girl!💖right.😖☝️now that I bought those goofy plastic thread holders.🤦‍♀️🙆‍♀️☝️not do in that again.😤😖

Oh no! I wondered about this, as the same is said for yarn - wrapping stretches it out. I just began buying new floss colors and wrapping them all, lol. I didn’t like how, once you’ve used much of your skein, the little labels fall off. So how do you store them once the skein gets low and the labels want to slip off?

But what about once you've used enough of the skein that those labels won't stay on?

yeah! ive been doing it the Right way. thanks Sarah

Thanks I am doing same way from the day one

AMEN SISTER! YES😊

Watching this while wrapping my thread… 😆

👍

Great tip. Thank you.❤

Thank you for uncovering the myth of what you are supposed to do. I always thought that's what a "proper" embroiderer did. #notnecessary = thank goodness. Now I have more time to stitch!

If they are all loose in a box, how do you quickly find the number you need?

I have trouble pulling the thread out of the skein, it usually ends up getting stuck or knotting =(

Thanks. I was planning to wrap. But now I wont

You just saved me another 6 months of wrapping! It does seem quite silly! Who came up with this silly idea anyway? lol

I'm glad I saw this before I did it thank you

I personally dont mind the kinks in the thread, also while you mention the colour codes I dont use those, I just buy cheap embroideryfloss from stores like Hema, Sostrene Grene, Action etc. Usualy these colours they have there are a one time deal anyway and you cant get them again. The only colour codes I use are black and white so those stay consistent. Also it is greatly relaxing to wind the thread on bobins while watching a tv show or listen to an audiobook

I've never wrapped a bobbin in my life. Utter waste of time and they take up more storage space. I keep mine in bags of about 30 in my box.

Thank you Sarah! This is the way my late Abuelita (Grandmother) and my Mami taught me to store the madejas (skeins). It feels affirming to hear you recommending this storage tip. Love your Top Tip series!!

Wise advice.

Thats what I've been doing but I discovered sometimes especially since we have to separate the threads, that one 3 thread left over part just won't cooperate and go nicely back into this gold and black labels lol. So in my rush to find a cheap solution, I bought a package of little sealable and resealable clear bags. Perfect I put the labeled thread in the bag once I've used it, and any left over threads from that skein. Now I'm working on ( see smoke from my head) how to keep numerous filled bags from sliding all over.

What’s your solution for leftover floss ?

I’m new to cross stitch & love this tip. However, what do you do with the floss which you have finished using? E.g. 20cm worth of floss left on the needle. How do you store these if they wasn’t on a skein to start with as you got them in a kit?

Thanks for this information! I just inherited 5 boxes of embroidery thread wrapped around these little plastic things. The thread is forever tangling and it’s kinky! I’m looking for suggestions to smooth it out! HELP!

I am extremely new to this and when I pull from a skein- it messes the WHOLE thing up- clearly I am missing something- any help is welcome!

When will you be doing more goldwork tutorials please x

Hi Sarah - what do you do with (how do you store) the part-used threads ie, if you only use 1 or two strands from the length you’ve cut from the skein - thank you x

I agree it takes a bit to wrap thread around the bobin I usally wrap it around the bobin when im doing alpha pathers on braclets cuz its easier and when im done wrapping I leave some so i dont use all of it jesus ❤ yall

Darn. I saw this too late!

I have a question about storing the little extras that you have cut off from your skein, but didn’t use. For example, when you use only three threads, and you may have the other three threads left, or parts of them. What’s the best way to save them with the correct skeins so they don’t get mixed up with the rest? Thanks! 😃

I have a huge, amount of thread, most rayon or silk, some linen a good deal of wool, a ton of unspun flat floss (rayon and silk) for rayon alone it would be a couple of large totes. most is on bobbins in boxes on shelves of three bookcases. for vintage Japanese threads (metallic over silk core) and a few other types I use a sewing machine bobbin. silk when I buy it is either in a 440 meter or 1000 meter skein that is put up on a swift and then twisted and tucked. There is literally no way to just pull this from the skein. I've been told by others they cut these skeins and simply pull one cut thread out at a time. There is no way I am having a rats nest of 1000 + individual 38 inch long silk threads. lets not even consider the 2000 meter skeins of flat rayon. try to pull from that? not in the most fevered nightmare thank you. I also custom dye a good deal of my fibers also. that means making a very secure skein on a swift, and after the scouring, dye bath, rinse and wash, if you think that skein can simply be pulled from, well lets say our realities are very far apart. Sometimes it's a good deal of work to get it unwound from the skein on a swift. I have almost no cotton floss that comes in those little 8 yard skeins. and the few that I did have that I tried to pull from the skein mostly tangled into a rats nest. Glad this works for you, but really it sounds incredibly wasteful and frustrating for the floss I work with.

Do you organize the skeins by color?

Não posso ouvir fico nervosa 😢😢😢😢

oops...too late...

when i hear your voice i kinda feel like your my gandmother

Thank you Sarah, I’m so pleased to hear I’m doing the right thing (through laziness and a dislike of those fiddly plastic bobbins). I store them in skeins, grouped loosely by colour, each group in one of a set of stacking boxes. Each box is about an inch deep, and intended for food storage (from a discount supermarket beginning and ending with L 😂). So two sets of three for £5.98 in total and I’m set for ever. My only beef with skeins is the labels slipping off…

And the money you spend on the cards could purchase more thread!

Thanks, I just saved myself over $ 20 not doing this.

Thank you.