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Thursday, September 15, 2011

What to do with an empty spool...

I've been collecting them for years. Each time I empty a spool of thread I toss the spool into this bag and say, "Gee, there ought to be something useful I could do with these." I keep thinking that someday I will string them together with some colorful wool beads and make a garland for my Christmas tree.

Some of the spools come apart. For these, I've finally found a practical use.

Don't they look adorable?! Here is how you do it...

Take the spool apart by twisting then end. It doesn't screw, but the motion will ease the pieces apart. Hook a small paper clip through a medium sized the rubber band.

Thread the rubber band through the small end of the little piece of the spool with the paper clip to the inside.

Pull the rubber band through, catching the paper clip on the spool.

Put the spool back together and stick the rubber band around the other end.

Thread your binding under the rubber band and wind it up. (I cut my binding 2.5" and then fold it in half. The binding in these pictures is 1.25". You could have wider binding and it would still work.)

As you wind it up let the binding wrap over the rubber band.

When you get to the end of your strip, pull the rubber band up and over the knob at the other end of the spool.

Ta-da! Cool, huh.

3 comments:

Sana Saroti said...

What a great idea! I could totally use that for my woven ribbons. I have so many and they're all flying around in one box. But wait ... I don't have any empty spools :( I am obviously not sewing enough ;-)

Lynne said...

What a wonderful idea - thank you! (I wondered what I was going to do with them - now I know!)

Anonymous said...

Brilliant idea! Thanks for comment on my blog and I am feeling much better thank you! x