Lee in Richmond

Regarding tossing bobbins that didn't wind correctly, you could use the bobbin on the spool holder and just sew with the thread (rather than throwing away). Also, the only time I have made a mess winding a bobbin it was because I hit the foot pedal too hard (going too fast).

Railroadersbrat

I'm actually dealing with my own bobbin issue myself right now, do be sure to take a moment and make sure your bobbin is correct for your machine. I bought a set of 50 Class 15's that would normally fit my machine, but discovered the hard way that once I got the bobbin wound and then put into my machine, there's something wrong with the bobbin itself. It didn't feed the thread through smoothly like others that I've had and it caused bird's nesting, a lot of broken bobbin threads and was just a general pain. Once I put one of my older ones in that I knew would fit, I didn't have that problem again.

Now that I got that off of my mind (lol), there's a way to adjust the tension when you wind a bobbin, usually a screw, mine I just move either to the left or the right and it'll feed it correctly.

sewingpup

Some machines just are finicky about bobbin winding. My Bernina's almost always are good and wind the bobbin fully and tightly and evenly. My Vikings have been more of a problem. I get some lop sided bobbin winding there and my friends who have Vikings also have problems. However, even lopsided, it usually stitches just fine. I use a Sidewinder Deluxe for my long arm. And it took a while to find the sweet tension on the winder itself. Now, most of the time I can wind decent bobbins. I have thought of having my Bernina do all the bobbin winding around here but really don't want to put the wear on the bobbin winding part. I did have a bobbin that was out of round. Sometimes they just come that way and sometimes it could be because I bounced it off the floor one too many times. I have purchased extra bobbins for all my machines....and actually, for the machines I can, an extra bobbin case. Oh, and also, make sure you have the thread fully inserted in any tension discs in the bobbin winding path.

Onebyone

I have several machines and at least 20 bobbins for each. When the bobbins of various colors become almost empty or I know I won't be using that color thread for another bobbin I use them for the top thread (I use a Bobbinator) to get them empty again. It doesn't matter what color thread you use to piece unless it's all white or pale fabric.