Well it's all in the title.

I was sewing this great big long seam with lots of pins in it. I was taking out the pins as I went because my machine doesn't like going over them. And then I get to the end and the thread is just loose.

I had run out of bobbin thread. Is there a way to avoid this?

All I know is to just keep checking :( It's a pain!

Just have to keep checking unless you want to go out and buy one of those nice machines that beeps when the bobbin is about to run out.

Unless your machine has a low bobbin warning.
I have found that my bobbin rattles a little when very low of thread, I have metal bobbins. I suggest if you have done a lot of sewing on that bobbin that you watch your sewing a little more closely. I usually catch my empty bobbin fairly quick, now. I have sewn probably a good 20 feet worth of chain piecing with no bobbin once, it was a different machine and it was 3am.

You can learn to hear the sound of your machine when it runs out of thread. On my commercial machine and the New Home, I can almost always tell when the bobbin thread is out with in just a few stitches. But like most everyone I've sewn many feet without bobbin threed.

Running out is not such a big deal on short seams, but when I'm going to do a LONG seam, I always make sure to have a spare bobbin wound, and drop that in before I start. It's just too disappointing when you have no thread and you've already taken the pins out!

My sewing machine tells me.

Mine sews a little different and I stop immediately.

I notice a difference in the sound of my machine too when the bobbin runs out. Try to get in the habit of checking your bobbin thread more often... I try to check mine in intervals...after so much chain piecing, so many borders, etc... not that it hasn't slipped by me from time to time too :oops:

I find out just like you. At the end of the seam. Sigh. :cry: :cry: :cry: