coopah

Yes, back in the day when I only had about 6 bobbins. Works okay, but I try not to do it anymore.

Boston1954

Actually, I have never thought of it. I always seem to get more bobbins. I am at the point where I have about two for every thread I own.

tyoung

I had never heard of this before. I can see the purpose behind this if you only need a small bit of thread though. Neat idea!

sewingsuz

I have been doing this as long as I can remember, however, I did not quilt until about 6 years ago. Made all the other items for years and clothing.

justflyingin

For most quilting/piecing I don't understand the mentality. If you put another color on top of one color then the color that you had will be unavailable. Do you really want to spend your time unwinding bobbins to get to the color in the middle?

Just use what color you have and don't sweat it (for piecing). Unless you are doing black or white and trying to use white (on black) or black (on white fabric), it'll probably be okay.

But then, maybe I shouldn't be talking. I just buy more bobbins. They aren't very expensive and having enough bobbins solves all these kinds of problems. I inherited a bunch of thread from people's moms and so I have been trying to use up this thread when I sew scrappy.

pennycandy

Most of my sewing has been clothing and I've done it for years. I kept a bobbin for certain basic colors that I used often, black, white, cream, and navy. A spare bobbin or two might have several layers of different colors when I needed something other than basics. I used the leftover thread when ever I had a lot of basting or gathering. Very little thread had to pulled off a bobbin and thrown away.

Tink's Mom

NOT a recommended practice. If you ever wonder why your stitch isn't perfect...the bobbin wound with other colors could be the issue.
The sewing machine dealers tell you not to do this....ever. I use up extra thread on bobbins on basting and some paper piecing.

maminstl

I also used to do that all the time - but since I bought a new sewing machine, the instructor went into quite a long spiel about why not to do it - what Tink's Mom said in just one short sentence So now I don't, and don't feel guilty about throwing away half a bobbin full of bright pink thread that I will never need again. I am not a saver by nature, so easy for me to do. I have friends who would be aghast at the waste.

KalamaQuilts

I bought a 15 singer clone last summer. The man said he'd not seen his mother use it often, and it looked it, immaculate. It came with 6 bobbins, each about 3/4 full. Because I knew the works had been in storage for at least 25 years, I started unwinding them. Seven different colors was the lowest number of different threads, thirteen was the most.

Think she used the machine for mending only?

citruscountyquilter

I do this all the time. I never have a problem. Until now I hadn't heard of not doing it! I also use a bobbin sometimes in place of a spool of thread if I have a small project and want to use some thread up and clear a bobbin. I also use thread from bobbins and nearly empty spools for basting. Why wouldn't you do this?