One of the first things you need to do in order to start sewing is to wind your bobbin. This means transferring some of the thread from the spool which you bought it on, onto the bobbin. The stitch on your machine is made up of two threads – one on top from the thread spool through the needle and one underneath from the bobbin and they lock in the middle of your fabric. Winding the bobbin is a really quick and easy step which once you get used to it, you will be doing in no time at all.
I’m showing you this on my machine – a Janome TX 607 and most sewing machines do this step in more or less the same way but do check your sewing machine manual (if you have one) to see if there are any little quirks that you need to take account of.
If you need to recap on any of the names of parts of the sewing machine that I’m talking about in this post, see another one I wrote recently here.
What do you need?
A sewing machine!
The thread you want to use (thread spool)
An empty bobbin
What do you do?
Place your thread spool on the spool pin with the thread coming out from underneath and then place the spool holder on the pin to hold the thread spool in place.
Take the end of the thread and wind it round the thread guide. Mine goes around the middle of the circular metal ‘pin’ between the small little ‘plates’ – pull the thread so it is snug up against the pin and taut.
Next keep pulling the thread so that you have enough length to insert it into the bobbin.
Now take the bobbin in one hand – the end of the thread in the other and insert the thread up into the hole in the top of the bobbin – from the inside upwards.
Whilst still holding the end of the thread place the bobbin onto the bobbin winder spindle.
Push the bobbin (and spindle) to the right so that the machine recognises that you want to wind a bobbin. If it’s a computerised machine, it should show a picture of a bobbin on the screen.
Gently keep hold of the end of the thread in your hand for a few seconds and press the start button on your machine or press your foot down if you are using a foot pedal.
The bobbin will start to wind – keep the speed at a steady medium level.
Once the bobbin is full, it will start to but up against the bobbin winder stopper and slow down or stop winding completely. At that point press the stop button or take your foot off the pedal.
Push the full bobbin and spindle back to the left to signify to the machine that you have finished winding.
Take the bobbin off the spindle and cut the thread.
Make sure you snip off any lose ends from the start of the thread which may be hanging off the bobbin......and there you have a full bobbin ready to start sewing!
Trouble Shooting
Check that you are using the correct bobbin for your particular brand of machine. They all look very similar but different brands may be very slightly different and using the wrong one for your machine could affect the quality of how it takes the thread.
If the thread is wrapping round the spindle underneath the bobbin its likely that you haven’t threaded it correctly along the thread guide. Take the bobbin off the spindle, unwrap the thread – rewind it back onto the thread spool and try again.
The thread should be smoothly, neatly and tightly wound round the bobbin, as in the picture below, if its anything other than that – i.e. loose, raggedy, etc then again something may have gone wrong with the winding process and you need to start again. A loosely wound bobbin will not produce a good quality stitch!
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