Proper Bobbin Use

Understanding your bobbin and how it works and how to care for it will make a world of difference in your sewing. You will have less frustration, less problems with your machine and better stitch quality. First of all, you need to know which bobbin you need for your machine to make sure you're using the correct size. There are over 60 different types and styles of bobbins. Typically there are three bobbins that are used in about 90% of our domestic machine, the Class 15, the L bobbin and the very large M bobbin. Typically, the M bobbin is found in long arm machines but there are a few domestics on the market now that are starting to use the M bobbin. You also have specialty bobbins which are brand specific and even model specific. You're going to have a specific bobbins for Husqvarna Viking and also for Pfaff, Pfaff even divides it down by model as to which bobbins are correct for the machines. And then Bernina has mirrors in their bobbins, they're more high-tech bobbins. So it is critical that, you know, the make and model of your machine and take that information with you when you go to the dealer to buy a bobbin. You can also find out by calling the technical support at the manufacturer to find out exactly which bobbin you need. That's the places to get the most correct information. Make sure you're handling your bobbins with care, a plastic bobbin will nick or chip if it's dropped or hit with anything. And this will cause it to have, the threads can get caught on it or it can get caught in operation in the mechanism of the machine. If this happens to you or you have problems on the top, you just want to feel for smoothness around the edges and the top. If you notice something is off, please just toss it and get a new one. It's not worth having poor stitch quality for as much as you're paying for your projects or having problems with your machine, the metal bobbins, if you drop one of these, they can become out of round. Either it will dent in and become out of round that way or I've actually seen it where it's landed on the edge and it's gotten out of round. They can also nick, get rid of them, get new bobbins, it only costs anywhere from 50 cents to a buck 50, to replace the bobbin. And it's not worth it for the frustration. You wanna make sure that bobbin is turning smoothly in your machine. The other problem that we see that's probably the number one cause of frustration, is a bobbin that's not wound correctly. This is a prewound bobbin. It's done mechanically in factories and it is, as you notice here, it's extremely smooth. It's even, the thread has gone up and down evenly. And as you look at it from the side you can see that there are no gaps. That's what we need to see on your bobbin. So your bobbins should look very similar to that prewound, this is a long arm bobbin that I wound, and you can see that it's nice and even and it's ready to go. Let's contrast that with some bobbins that aren't wound properly. This one, you can see that the threads are loose and gaping, there's gaps in there. And that's not just from the variegated thread. That's the actual thread on the bobbin, oops, is just not wound smoothly. Here's another one. This one's great. The threads are flying all over. Sometimes you'll get a thread that comes loose and I'll tell you how to avoid that. And it's primarily when you hold it and wrap around and try and do your bobbin, you'll get threads that are loose. Those are going to get jammed in the bobbin case and cause birds nests, it'll cause the machine to stop. You're gonna have all kinds of problems. This is another one, where the threads just did not wind evenly. Don't even think about using this bobbin in your machine. This one, I don't even know if I'd bother with trying to get all that thread off. I think it's easier to toss and get a new one, 'cause my time is worth a lot more than the cost of a bobbin. Here's another one, this is another one of those variegated thread ones where it didn't come out right. Why is it not coming out right? Most likely, it's because you didn't get through the tension disc and I'm gonna show you where that is on your machine, so you can look for it and listen for it. That's another trick. And finally, here's one that was done for a domestic machine. You can tell that it's thicker on one end than the other. And there's also some gaps in there you can, it's not as visible from the side, but it's more on the top here where the thread is up higher on the left and very, very low on the right. Those are some samples of what you don't want to do. Let me set up the machine and I'll show you how to do it the correct way. All right, let's look at how to correctly wind above, and so we can avoid those problems I showed you, I'm going to be using the Pfaff today, and it uses the aqua or teal colored bobbin for this particular machine. This one, it can only go into the bobbin case, one way. So if you're fighting with your bobbin when it goes in or it's not moving, it may be because you have it upside down. On this particular model, there is a hole right here at the top of the bobbin, just about every bobbin on the market has a hole or several holes that you can come up through. And so, what you want to do is you're gonna put your thread on the spool spindle, and I find the easiest way is to get a nice sharp edge on your thread. Make sure you've got a clean cut. And the reason I lick it is not because it's unsanitary or it's rude. You lick it because your saliva helps it go through the hole, same thing when you're threading a needle. I want to come up from the bottom, so I'm going to go into where that thread area is. You can see that from the top, I'm trying to point to it here. And you're going to go through the top and pull that thread up. It needs to come up in through that hole, all right? And I just hold on to that. The next thing you want to do is, every machine winds the bobbin a little bit differently. Typically you're going to go through a tension disc. You're going to maybe go through a thread guide and then put it on the spindle. And it just depends on the machine. My particular machine is in the totally opposite direction of this, but it's the same concept. So what I want you to do is most people do not seat the thread in the thread guide. If you listen real carefully you will hear a click when the thread is in. That's what you want to listen for. And you also will find it's like flossing thread, and the thread is very difficult to get out of that thread guide, all right? Go through the thread guide or the tension guide, rather, go through the thread guide, come over to the post and seat it onto the post. Listen for the click. You want to make sure it's tightly seated. If it's loose or you aren't hearing the click, it's going to wind incorrectly. Hold onto the thread while you engage the bobbin winder. And go ahead and start winding, let it wind a little bit and then come in and trim the thread as close as possible to the top of the bobbin. This way, you know that that thread is not escaping. You want to make sure it's securely covered with the bobbin thread and then go ahead and finish winding. Once you have finished winding your bobbin, take it off of the spool and I'm going to show you how to properly insert it into machine because putting the bobbin in correctly is another source of difficulty. First, I want to show you how to insert a bobbin on a top loading bobbin case, such as this Pfaff has, there's usually a little lever here, you just click that and as you can see the top, plastic top pops off. You need to know, does your bobbin come off clockwise or counterclockwise? All right, let me say that again, it's very important. Does your bobbin come off and load with the thread coming off the top clockwise or is it coming off counterclockwise, this way? You need to check your owner's manual. It makes a huge difference, if you're not loading the bobbin correctly. In this particular case, this machine needs to come off the top, to the left, counterclockwise, you're going to just simply put the bobbin in, and each machine's a little different but basically they all work the same. We're going to bring the thread around and there is a little, tension disc right here or a click, a clip, if you will, that the thread needs to go in. Again, listen for the little click, hold the bobbin and feel the click and hear it. Then it comes up, you'll see it winding. And the thread, the bobbin itself will be rotating counterclockwise, you can see this motion. There's usually another little thread path that it needs to go through, down here. So it comes through the first tension disc, around the thread guide and into here. And this is actually a thread cutter. And usually, depending on the manufacturer you will go ahead and cut the bobbin thread at that time. Or some of them, have you just pull it out and leave it. And then you slip your cover back on and then you're good to go and pull your thread up. While I have this open, I want to show you the bobbin assembly. You're going to need to remove your plate, which depends on your plate. But usually you just slip a screwdriver in and gently pry it back, lift it out. And now you can access the bobbin case, the bobbin case is two parts. They simply come out, and then you simply lift the bobbin case out. Be very careful that you don't drop it, you want to hold onto it firmly. While you're in here, go ahead and take your little brush and wipe around and get any lint out of the bobbin area of the case holder. And then go ahead and let's give our bobbin case just a little brush off, right? Then you're going to just slip it right back in. Put the other little piece in, replace the plate, snap it down and you're done. That's all there is to it. And if you gave me just a second to get this machine out of the way, I'll show you how rotary bobbin works. Now, I want to show you a rotary bobbin. This is the rotary bobbin case, this is to one of my long arm rotary bobbins cases. I usually have quite a few because I have different weights of thread and I will get them in the ballpark for the tension and then finally adjust on the machine. But I have several and I go ahead and I mark them with a permanent marker. So I know which thread it's for, I put the marking there and I put it here. So that's a little tip for my long arm friends, a rotary bobbin case, typically seats in front of the machine underneath, underneath the bed or it will seat on the side of the machine on the left-hand side, depends on the manufacture. The rotary bobbin case, to take care of it, you're going to dust it and clean it out. And you're going to want to do it very frequently. Lint is your enemy and it can affect the performance in the turning of the bobbin within the case. Same with your drop-in bobbin, on the back is a little lever for taking the bobbin out and you want to get under that, just lift it up and give just a little brush. And as you can see, oops, there's a little bit of dirt there. So dirt does get in those odd little places. You also have on a rotary bobbin, it depends on the manufacturer, depends on the bobbin, you can have this little football looking thing, it's called a check spring and it seats down inside, there's usually some little holes and little clips for it to go in. Just make sure that that is seated correctly, and that's in there if you have one of those. The side of it has your tension. As you turn it, it will usually be right down from the gap and you will have two screws. The larger one is where you adjust the tension. You adjust it with a very small screwdriver, and a quarter of a turn is more than enough to adjust tension. You want to do very small increments, turning to the left is loosey, turning to the right is tighty, righty, tighty, lefty, loosey. If you need to tighten the tension turn it to the right, loosen it, turn it to the left. This screw, you really don't want to mess with because it will pop out and the whole assembly comes apart. You also don't want to turn the tension very far or you will lose that screw, and they are a booger to get, to find and they're a booger to get back in. So don't do it, word to the wise. Once again, it depends on your manufacturer's machine and instructions. If the thread is going to come off and go this way, clockwise, if it's wound clockwise or if it's winding counterclockwise, my particular machine, it has to come in from the bottom. So I put it in here, it's going to come clockwise up through this first slot. So right here is my slot. I want it to click in there, and then I come underneath this little arm and it's going to go into, right under there and you'll hear it click. That little click means it's in and you'll also see that it's coming out the hole. That's how you put the bobbin in. When you put the bobbin assembly into the machine, you want to make sure that you hear a very loud click, that will let you know its seated and just give a light twist with this to make sure it's not moving in the machine. A lot of times, if your case isn't in firmly, it will literally fall out of the machine onto the floor, as you start to sew. So it's very, very important. You do not want to have this bobbin case get damaged, just like the bobbin. So when you're doing your cleaning on it, check it for round, check it to make sure it's not bent. This is primarily where it will get bent in. And then you will have problems. You wanna pull on your thread and make sure that bobbin is turning smoothly and cleanly before you put it into your machine. So that is your rotary bobbin assembly. One last thing, storing your bobbins. You want to protect them, so we don't want them getting dinged or damaged. There are several different options on the market, these are two that I like a lot. I use these particularly for my long arm bobbins because I have a cover on it that'll keep dust out and all of my bobbins are stored on a baker's rack behind my machine. So this is the perfect option. And then when I need it, obviously I just take, take the cover off and there's access to my bobbins and they're nice and protected. This is a bobbin ring, I usually store my machine bobbins in a drawer next to my machine, it's part of the machine cabinet. And this is very nice because they don't fall out and it protects, especially my plastic ones from getting nicked. So there's a few tips on bobbins, how they work and their proper use. Just remember, if you take care of your bobbins, literally, they will take care of you and they will work much better in your sewing machine.