Not sure what to do with these items I inherited!
 

ok, so I inherited a whole craft/quilting room.. a lot of things are older items... Here are a couple I have questions about.... One is of these little bobbin type things.. they are filled with some sort of thread and the "bobbin" is paper... What is this exactly? ... the other are the iron on's... are these to old to use? After awhile do they need to be thrown away... I would say these are really old, but not to sure! Thanks for your help!

Not sure if this is something I should hold on to or not!

Aunt Martha's transfers are sold currently. Not sure if there is a 'shelf life' on those....try ironing on something to see? If you're into embroidery? The others...hard to tell from the photos. Maybe some type of embroidery thread/ribbon?

check the thread, pull a strand and if it breaks easily, chuck the lot lol.....

Some of those look like wooden spools. If they are, people collect them.

The 'Iron ons" look like they're for embroidery, which I don't do, so I may be way off base with my suggestion. I suggest trying at least one of the "iron ons" as is to find out if they are still useful as "iron ons". If not, and you like some of the patterns, scan them into your computer and, if you decide to use them can either trace them or print them on iron on fabric. If you have a sewing machine that does embroidery from a pattern, can these patterns be digitized and used that way?

Spools of thread - looks like you have quite a few threads with wooden spools. Test the thread by seeing how easily it breaks. I'm told that it's no good if it breaks easily. The spools themselves might be worth something to a collector or a crafter!

Bobbin thread - What size are the bobbins? I know that size "M" bobbins are made and sold for long arms, so that's a possibility. Again, their usefulness is probably dependent on their age.

Perhaps other, more knowledgable folks on this board can give you better info. At the very least you have some history in your possession!

if those are wooden spools i will take them off your hands?

Yes there are several wooden spools... Glad to know people collect them... I know so new to alot of this! I will try out the tread and see if it breaks easy or not!

The iron on transfers are going for $3 to $5 plus shipping on ebay.
the paper bobbins, are prewound bobbins. Some machines will work with them, some won't. Need to check the strength of the thread. If the thread on the bobbin is OK, but it won't work in your machine, you can use it on the top for piecing or sewing, just like a small spool of thread.

i am using the paper bobbin things ....they make them for industrial machines .....and the aunt martha transfers work good on color crayon quilts also

Some of your spools are from the Belding company who made good quality threads including silk thread. My mother who is now almost 94 used to use heavy weight Belding thread for sewing on buttons when she made clothes and other Belding threads for clothing construction.

I was a tailor and it looks like silk top stitching thread. You would make the wool suit jacket and then top stitch with silk to make it look professional. Silk is usually very strong. You would not need a lot on a spool just to top stitch so it usually came on the smaller ones. If you find it breaks easily, don't use it. Instead, get an old green canning jar and put all the thread in. Set it on a shelf and enjoy the pretty colors of days-gone-by.

On the wooden ones.... I have a bunch of them from my Great Aunt Sally. Most are silk buttonhole twist. I finally had to go to YouTube to find out how to do handmade buttonholes to use them. It truly is beautiful stuff if you're into that sort of thing! I'm sure you could use it for embroidery as well - with those iron-on transfers. There just isn't much on a each one. And THEN - sell the wooden spools!

Well I checked the tread.. And it is all still good.. Does not break easy at all!

Don't know about the thread and bobbins. When I find old Aunt Martha iron on it copy them then trace them onto muslin. If they are really old the transfers may not come through then you have lost a pattern.

I used paper bobbins in my Babylock embroidery machine sometimes.

I also display my old wooden in a jar.

I have a lot of "stuff" that came from my grandmother. One of the things is a Singer sewing book. I plan to make this book the focal point in a shadow box and add some of the wooden spools, buttons (still on the cards) trims (still on the cards), a card with thread color samples, etc etc.

The Aunt Martha transfers will probably still be good. In my family the women saved all the sugar sacks, flour sacks, etc and turned them into dish cloths or pillow cases. All of these would have had hand embroidery using transfers such as these.

Iron one should still work but give it a try. Good luck. Nice collection.

You can always rewind the thread onto a new bobbin, if the pre-wounds don't work. If you don't have an embroidery machine, you can use the iron-ons and do either hand or free-motion embroidery with them. Some use the liquid embroidery for these also.

The iron ons usually have a little "test" design just for this purpose. I have a large clear lamp that I have a lot of old sewing items in. That way it's useful and holds all that little stuff you don't want to get rid of.

Thanks everyone for your ideas and help!!!! I am in the stages or reorganizing my sewing studio this week... so hopefully I will find a nice place for them! :) We shall see!!!

Here is the thing... Even if the images won't transfer anymore you can use them if you wish. Three other ways I know of are, use a purchased transfer pencil to outline the image and then iron the transfer the same as normal. You can use a light box to transfer them with a regular pencil onto the fabric by tracing around the image. Lastly, you can iron on newly printed images (copies) that you copied from the original pattern. I think you must iron the printed copy within so many minutes for it to work. I am not exactly sure how long it takes to transfer to the fabric. I haven't done it in years. But, it does work, I have done it but, it has been some time ago. Years and years... lol!

Oh I forgot! You can use the printable sheets of fabric.

Many years ago, people used to make doll furniture from those wooden spools. Somewhere I have a very old article with some diagrams of how to put them together to make beds, tables and even little doll chairs with them.

Also they can be all lined up on a nice long board and screwed on to make a coat hanger type holder for the sewing room or workshop. You drill the evenly spaced holes to fit the inside of the spool that the machine screw will fit into, then use a sunken (countersunk) holes that you use larger drill bit to make a hole on the back that the nut will fit down into and onto the machine screw. The shelf will then it will hang flush to the wall. The names of the threads show on the front and give some interest to the little hanger. The metal picture hangers work good to hang them onto the wall on either end of the shelf.

I would try taking them to a retirement community/assisted living housing that hopefully has a manger. They would know if anyone living there still sews and does embroidery. A lot of towns don't carry iron on transfers anymore, you need to order them out of catalogs or on-line and the elderly can't get them. They would love to get their hands on this stuff! Or sometime church circles have elderly ladies that get together to work on quilts for projects, these ladies might be interested in the iron ons and threads. To be honest, hand-sewn embroidery kitchen towels are the SECOND thing I look for at auctions and sales if I am lucky enough to get to one - right behind the FIRST thing I look for- quilts!

I use the the paper bobbins for embroidery

The paper spools were bobbins that were used in
a Sewing Room of a mill for making sheets, etc.

If thread is not rotten, you can use it.

Take up English paper piecing and use the thread on the bobbins to baste your fabric to the paper. :) It will get torn out and tossed anyway, so it won't matter if it's any good. Just a thought......that would be a way to get some use out of it. I've seen those paper bobbins before, too.....no idea what they were used for.

The small wood spools I think has silk thread on them I used that to hand sew the out side of a zipper on
a dress I still have some

i have a box of the iron on transfers that are from the 40's...back when they cost 5cents...they still work fine and i still use them when i need/want an embroidery pattern. my first redwork quilt was made using them.the paper bobbins are-exactly that- pre-wound bobbins. if the thread is still good (stong, doesnt break easily if you take some in both hands & give it a tug) then they are still fine to use. you can wind them onto your own bobbins, or use them for hand sewing, or even put them on your spool pin & use them on the top of the machine- if you have an old machine they may even fit as bobbins.

Aunt Martha patterns
 

You can purchase a transfer pencil and trace over the pattern then iron it onto the fabric. It works very well.
also, I am looking for an old Aunt Martha's pattern of a baby laying on an open rose. If you have this pattern, I would like to purchase it from you. I made my oldest daughter a baby quilt using this pattern and it has gone to shreds now and i would like to make her another one for child...Thank you

I have used the paper bobbins and they work fine. I have not had any trouble with the iron on transfers I have used that were from a friend's mother. They were old but still worked fine.

Personally I would not use the thread that's 'as old'...as you say it could be.

IF it came from someone that was close to me that I wanted to remember when I looked at the thread, I'd display it in a pretty glass container.

Our sewing areas can be pretty and decorative too!

Nan - IN

The paper bobbins, as mentioned earlier, are prewound bobbins, and they are real timesavers. Is there a size like L or M marked on the bobbins? I have not looked lately, but Superiorthreads.com may still have a chart showing which sewing machines will accept them. If not, then try one out in your machine. If it works, great! If not, they can be rewound onto your bobbins.

Good morning M, Inheriting OPS can be both a sentimental and problematic thing to deal with. My mom was a craft hoarder, mostly cross stitching and I literally inherited a room full of her unfinished projects. It took me a few years to deal with it all, a little at a time.

If the bobbin thread is good you can rewind it onto bobbins that fit your machine.

I don't know what the coral colored thread is, looks like pearl cotton, but I can see a funky quilt with this used as a fun folk art hand quilting thread in a large scale style.

I have used very old transfer patterns and they still worked. Get creative with these. They don't need to be used just for embroidery work. Transfer and use a crayon process to color on fabric and quilt it. Enlarge the designs to use as quilt motifs. These little packages are like getting free clip art. They would make great mini quilts. Enjoy them, or pass them along. They don't have much value except to anyone who wants to get creative with them.

As you can see, your simple 'tools' have my creative side going into overdrive.

peace

I have a bunch of the paper bobbins given to me by my neighbor, she used to work in a men's suit factory. I thought the same thing, that the thread may be dry-rotted, but not so, the thread is thin, but very strong!

Even if the iron on's no longer work, they could be used to trace onto fabric if you so desired.

when a favorite aunt died, we took alot of her old notions (button cards with button on it, old snap cards, small sissors, etc..) to the florist and had her make an arrangement for the service. it turned out so pretty...and so appropriate for her service, she was never without pins sticking in her shirt and always had a project going. I now have that arrangement in my sewing room.. when I look at it, it makes me smile..she was such a dear... when I learn how to print a pic here, I will..

You can also rewind the thread on the paper bobbins to your own bobbins if they are good and colors that you use. I would try them on my machine first though.

Some of your small wooden spools(look kind of like bobbins)are top stitching thread, usually silk. I would keep them :)