I bought this tape at a quilt show and having used it I'm not sure there is a DIY alternative. The stuff has a good amount of stretch to it and sticks to itself so it can be used over and over again. The only thing that comes to mind that may be similar in idea is cling wrap (the clear plastic food wrap). But cling wrap is much thinner, much more fragile and is sometimes hard to find the edge to take it off. Hugo's tape is none of these things. As far as being expensive, I bought my roll over 3 years ago and have hardly put a dent in it. Because you can continue to reuse it for a long time you can reuse pieces of it on newer spools once the old one is used up. Granted most of my thread is on the cone type spools used in longraming that have a locking ring on the bottom of the cone. But I use it for all my specialty threads that don't have a locking ring and it keeps my thread neat, tidy and still rolled on the spool.
for those not familiar it is a tape made to wrap around spools of thread so they don't unravel, at least that is how it was marketed at the show. But there are lots of uses for it.
https://www.amazingtape.com/