How to Wind a Bobbin Correctly Every Time

It sounds like a simple thing. Wind a bobbin so you can start sewing. But do you know how to wind a bobbin correctly? There really is a trick to it. First of all, you need to read your owner's manual to find out exactly the threading path on your machine for winding the bobbin.

Typically, you're going to come over through the tension lock here, the tension dials and come over. But I've found on this particular machine that the thread likes to jump out of the tension. So I found if I just take it through the preliminary thread port there and then come through, I do a lot better. The big thing that people don't do when they're winding a bobbin, is they don't go through this little hole that's on the top of the bobbin. It is very important that you bring your thread up through here.

If you just hold it and wrap it around your bobbin, it's very easy while when you get to the end of your thread, for it to come unthreaded and catch in the machine. It also causes the tension to be off. So you want to thread it through that hole and bring up a tail of, oh, a couple inches. Make sure your bobbin is firmly seated on the spindle. And then depending on how your machine operates, go ahead and push it over and some will start winding automatically.

Some have a button you press. Others, like mine, you just press the foot pedal. While you're winding, you want to hold onto that thread tail until you have gotten several wounds of thread around the bobbin, then stop and cut the tail. Do not pull it. If you pull it, you're stretching the thread.

And again, you're going to cause problems. The biggest piece of advice I can give you for winding a bobbin, other than coming through that hole, is to wind at a slow speed. Everybody hates to wind bobbins. It's an annoyance. It keeps us from sewing.

So we want to go as fast as we can. And we put pedal to the metal. What happens is your thread is coming through and winding at a very fast speed. The thread is stretching, and you are not going to get a good wind on your bobbin and have perfect tension. So go at a moderate speed.

If you have trouble with your threads slipping out of the tension discs, I just hold my finger in front of it to prevent it, and I watch what's happening. With this particular machine, occasionally, I have trouble where the thread may start to actually jump out of the bobbin and start winding around the spindle. So again, you just want to pay attention and make sure everything's going smoothly, all right? Whoops. So we want to go at that moderate speed.

If you're winding a bobbin for monofilament or MonoPoly thread, you want to go exceedingly slow because that type of thread actually heats up as it's being wound on there and it causes the thread again to stretch. And you will have problems with your tension because the bobbin hasn't been wound correctly. Typically, when, you know, and I do most of it by sound. Listen to the sound of your machine. Watch your bobbin as it's being wound, and it will tell you if it's being done smoothly.

You want to make sure that the thread is winding evenly from top to bottom, up and down. If it's not, stop and redo the bobbin. Your bobbin, when it's finished winding, should be nice and smooth. It should be nice, even rows. And it should look like this.

This is a pre-wound bobbin done at the factory. And if you notice, it is totally smooth. When you press on it, it doesn't indent, it's nice and firm. And that's what you want to see here. It should be a firm, well-wound bobbin.

And you can see it on the top how nice and even it is. You can see that it's stacked nicely. It should literally mimic that. If your bobbin, for whatever reason, comes out like this, where the thread is unevenly wound, you can see where this portion of the bobbin is less than the base of the bobbin. It has a lot more thread down here.

You can see where the thread is loose. If I press on this, you can see where it indents and it's loose. If any of those problems are occurring with your bobbin, do not use it, I can't emphasize that enough. Yes, there are people that will put that in and try and sew with it. You will have bird's nests underneath.

You will have stitches. You will have little thread knobs on the back. You will have nothing but problems and a lot of thread breakage. So it's not worth your time. It's not worth the frustration.

Take a few extra seconds, do it properly. And you'll find what a difference a correctly wound bobbin will make.