Thursday, January 28, 2010

Look Ma, No Stray Threads

Today I wanted to tear apart my sewing machine, clean it out really good and oil it. Not only did it seriously need a cleaning and oiling, but it is my grandmothers machine and once it sits for a few hours newly oiled, it smells like her sewing room to me.

In spite of my wanting to clean up, every time I turned around, I was tangled up in loose threads. Then, I got an idea. A quilting magazine or sewing magazine I received awhile back had thread tamers and they were like maybe $3 for 24 or somewhere in that general area.

Then it dawned on me. Remembering my lessons from the conference I have been attending via the internet this week, don't waste money on things you don't need or use what you have. The girls have 3 boxes of ponytail holders and many of those are to small for their thick hair.

So, I upcycled them. I am sure you can purchase these at the dollar store or WalMart for cheaper than what the catalog was selling them for and they weren't offering free postage, so I saved myself in the area of $5.

I already had the bobbin savers and bobbin buddies and I love these and feel they were worth the money! So, if you have a problem with stray threads, I hope this little hint helped you out as I love sharing a good idea with others.

Don't mind the date on the picture, my camera resets itself backwards every so often and I didn't notice it until I had posted the picture.

1 comment:

Cathy said...

Oooh! Great Idea! I have a handful of those ponytail holders too. They never stay in her fine hair, but I do think they would look fab on the thread.
I received some of the bobbin towers for Christmas. The look like clusters of the bobbin buddies. They are pretty good at keeping the bobbin thread under control. I have used an ultra fine point sharpie to mark the thread color number n the bobbin. A little baking soda & dish soap will remove the mark if I need to change the color.