Santa brought me one for Christmas because he was tired of listening to the whining noises my machine made when winding bobbins. I love it for all the other reasons mentioned also.

Personally I don't see a need for it. I have a separate bobbin winder motor on my machine.

Over 12 hours drive to the service center, so when my Brother decided it didn't want to wind bobbins any more I got a sidewinder. Used it for a few weeks and then forgot the Brother was being fussy and low and behold its winding away again! Go figure!

I have one and like it for the same reasons listed by others. It also winds bobbins tighter than the machine so there is more thread on the bobbin and it lasts longer. I also have a machine (with a separate bobbin motor) that gets really fussy about winding bobbins sometimes and this works when the machine is acting up.

I got mine on sale for about $15 when they first came out.

You can also occupy the kids by having them wind bobbins for you! lol

JuneC, the only two types of bobbins that the Sidewinder will not work on are Viking and Bernina. Thought you should know. :)

Older machines could wind bobboins without unthreading the machine, even wind while you were stitching. Newer machines have to be unthreaded to wind bobbins. The sidewinder is great for saving time. Have you seen the new ones, not $30, $100. Simplicity bought them and upgraded. Wish I could come up with an invention somebody would buy me out, then I could stitch all day instead of going to work!!!!

I'm puzzled about this. Unless you have an extral reel of thread in the same colour, wouldn't you have to unthread your sewing machine anyway to get the reel off to put on the sidewinder. Or am I missing the point completely.

I love mine because I don't have to unthread my machine to wind the bobbin. I have plenty of bobbins and wind ALL of them while I'm at it. I need to get one for my DM since her machine won't wind the bobbins anymore.

Hi JuneC and everyone,

I just recently bought one (SideWinder-small) at JoAnns, using a 50% off coupon. of course. The reason I bought one is that my good machine needs to go the hospital for repairs. Not having the funds for completing the repairs it has had to be put on hold for now.

I found a Singer machine very cheap at the thrift shop to get by in the interim. Unfortunately the bobbin winder on this machine is not working. Since I only have one bobbin for this temporary machine, I have to stop to reload when it comes empty. I had actually wound a few bobbins by hand before getting it, so getting it has made loading the bobbins a breeze.

Also, from what I've been reading it seems that the bobbin winding feature on some machine tends to need fixing quite often. With the use of the side winder, this feature of the machine will last longer before needing attention.

I also like that the side winder can be used by electrical outlet or by batteries. I would imagine that it might be nice to have a sew-ins and retreats.

Just wondering if anyone having the large spool winder can report about their use.

Have a Great Quilty Day!
Pam M

I dont know...I just had to buy one and I think ive used it once. Waste of money in my opinion.