Hi, I saw something somewhere where you can take a coffee cup and put the thread in it and they said it works well. Also a Singer salesman told me to get a piece of wood for the botton square or round and drill a hole big enough to fit a dowel rod in the hole and that will also fit your thread and then near the top screw in a small cupholder screw or one of those little round ones that screw in and put it on the side of the dowel rod and he said it costs a lot less. Good Luck Sue