I haven't seen formal instructions, but I have seen a variety of bobbin cases, and made one myself many years ago. This is a long saga, so delete if you don't have much time.
It was for the Arachne 98 Conference in England. I was told to bring 100 pair of bobbins, and I needed something to carry them compactly but with the pairs separated since they would be wound with thread. They had to fit in my carryon bag. I took the main idea from a fishing tackle bag that I used for my sewing supplies. It is a fabric box with a zipper around 3 sides. Inside are several 'pages' with bobbin pockets. The sides of the box measure 5.5 x 9 inches. The four narrow edges are 3.75 inches wide. The zipper goes down the middle of the edge section, starting and ending about 2 inches up the back (spine) edge from the corners so it opens very flat. I had a few bright ideas on the pocket pages. First, I wanted to be able to SEE the bobbins while in the pockets. So....I used clear plastic for the top layer of each page. WARNING: Plastic will not slide through the mechanisms of normal sewing machines. To stitch them, I had to cover every seam with paper and tear the paper off. It was an exercise in frustration. Suggestion.....to make see-through bobbin pockets, use fabric net, not plastic. (Unless you have one of those special machines intended to sew plastic which most normal households do not have.) The pages were made in sets of double pages about 11 x 8 inches. The pockets are 4 " deep (intended for English Midlands bobbins) across the 8" width of backing.. Since Midlands have spangles which take up more room than the bobbins, I had half the pages with pockets facing left and half right so the spangles would not all be on the same side.. The edges of the fabric backings and the plastic pocket strips had bias tape trims for strength and neatness. I tried putting a pocket strip on each side of a backing, and sewing the pocket separation stitches through the whole 'sandwich'. Problem....when bobbins were inserted into one side, there was no room to put bobbins in the other side. The backing was pushed tightly against the other pocket strip. Improved method...make each page separately and then attach two sets together to make a double sided page. if this is really wanted. Single separate pages work just fine. Pockets: Measure your bobbins to see how much room a pair will take. I made one page with the pockets too close together. The fatter bobbins would not fit. I made a page with the pockets having a tiny gusset to allow thickness and the bobbins fell out. Suggestion....keep the backing and pocket strips the same size, and adjust by the width of the stitching between pockets. If the pages are single layers, they will flex enough to hold the bobbins just fine. The double pages of pockets were stitched down the center to the spine of the box. These pages can be sewn separately or doubled and sewn two at once. Space them out evenly across the width of the spine. I made a small zippered bag and attached to the spine in the middle of the case. This was enough to hold my thread, tiny scissors, crochet hook, and any other tool needed at the class. Summary -- bobbin case box 5.5 x 9 x 3.75 of fabric with a zipper. Pages 5.5 x 8 (made in double page format of 11 x 8), each one with nine bobbin pockets. Capacity about 110 pair maximum (but hard to zip shut when that full). There is a small handle attached to the spine for easier carrying. Suggestions....Use fabric net for pockets for visibility of bobbins. Make each page as a separate unit. Bag #2 -- which I have seen but not made. Size was about 9 x 11 with bobbin pockets inside on front and back but no extra pages. With a wider bag (9"), there's room to have 2 or 3 overlapping rows of pockets on each side, thus distributing the thickness of spangles over a wider area. Depending on the size of pcokets and number of rows, this type of bag can hold 2 - 4 dozen pairs of bobbins. The kind and size of handle on the bag is up to the maker. There's probably as many different bobbin holder cases as there are people who decide to make one. Just dive in and do something you think will work. You will learn what you like and what doesn't seem to work. Then you can make an improved version. <G> You will find your friends will want one also. Happy lacing, and sewing, Alice in Oregon -- with wet but warmer weather after having 18" of snow and below freezing temps for two weeks. Now the rain storms are causing severe flooding in many places. ----- Original Message ---- From: Miriam <mgid...@netvision.net.il> Hi spiders, does anyone have good instructions for making a bobbin case? I don't like the rolls, I prefer something to be zipped. - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
