How to Wind a Sewing Machine Bobbin

Series Summary

Sewing is an ancient craft that still has remarkable relevance in today's modern world. The art of stitching and assembling pieces of fabric together, either by hand or with the use of a modern sewing machine, is still a valuable skill. It is the backbone of the textile industry, it comes in handy for clothing repair, and homemade clothing wouldn’t exist without it. Whether using a sewing machine or a needle and thread, the techniques involved in constructing a well-fitting garment are very specific and involved. Becoming skilled at the craft is a lifelong pursuit. In this free video series on sewing, an independent fashion designer discusses basic sewing and fashion design. Gather the necessary materials to start a sewing project, and find out how to organize a sewing space for efficient use. Get tips on threading and using a sewing machine, including how to choose the right needle and how to wind a bobbin. Find out how to make custom patterns for unique garments, and get helpful advice on developing a fashion design portfolio. Start sewing and creating new and unique outfits with this informative design guide.

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Rebecca and I'm going to talk about how to wind a sewing machine bobbin. The first thing you do, you want to set your thread up, where you would normally set your thread up, to thread your machine and then I'm going to pass it around the tension knob right there, so that I get a nice tight bobbin, and in this particular bobbin it has holes in it so I am going to stick it through one of these holes. (Stick the thread, I can do it, right through the hole.) Here we go stick it on. Most sewing machines have a little clip so that you can tell the machine that you're going to be winding a bobbin and not doing regular sewing, so I'm going to hold on to my thread and I'm going to push on my pedal and make the machine go. Okay, now that I've done a little bit, I've got thread on there nice and tight like we want it but, I don't want this guy to come back and haunt me or get in the way, or get all tangled. So I am going to clip it off and then I am going to continue winding my bobbin. Alright so important thing to think about in winding your bobbin is to not wind the bobbin so it's full. You probably want to wind it about half way or maybe a little bit more because otherwise it just doesn't work quite as well and has a better chance of getting tangled up in the machine but, we are going to keep going here, winding on up. And that should do it. I am going to switch my little switch off there. Clip it off, and it should be about that much, about half way wound, not so fat. And just a reminder one thing that is an absolute no no with bobbins is winding thread on top of thread, it just leads to problems and it gets all tangled. So if I say, oh I have a lot of red thread on here and I don't have a free bobbin, wind it back around another spool of thread as opposed to winding on top because it's only going to lead to trouble. And then ready to load the machine."