General Chat

I need to take up a pair of jeans, so went upstairs to find some thread.
I remembered a tin of threads I got when clearing out my ex's aunts flat.
I opened the tin, only to find quite a lot of wooden spools of cotton, some with manufacturers names I don't think I've seen in the shops lately - but then, I don't often shop for sewing thread nowadays.
So, I go onto the internet - in fact spend over 2 hours on the internet - to find out if there is any 'age' - I know, if they're wooden, they're at least 40 years old.
I've got:
J & P Coates 6 cord (4 different sized/design of reels)
J & P Coates Super Sheen - yet another design/sized reel
Dewhurst's 'Sylko' - 3 different label designs
'Sylvia' machine twist (only I label remains)

The real twister is the large (in height) reel of extremely strong thread - either extra strong button thread, or possibly for leather, that only has one label left, that says
'Clarke & Co's Soie d'Ecosse'.
Clarks and Coates merged in 1953, so I suppose this could be over 60 years old!!

I've also got (somewhere upstairs) 2 tins of old threads that came out of my grans house. Gran was a hoarder, so goodness knows how old some of hers are. :-S
Strangely, I'm typing this on what was my g grans sewing table!

I get distracted all the time , usually up my tree until all hours.

I wonder what treasures you will find next? My Mum's button box takes all of us down memory lane every time anyone needs a button..........we rarely find one in the box though.

But have you taken the jeans up yet ?? :-D

I've taken the jeans up :-D
Unfortunately, I managed to take the second leg up inside out!!
Something I've never done before :-(
Sooo, unpicked it and made sure it was the right way around :-D

This sewing table is amazing - it has 3 drawers. The middle one is 6 inches deep.
This is because the top lifts up, and there's storage (for material?) in there.
There is also a drawer either side. These are 2 inches wide - just the right size for a cotton reel, and 17 inches deep!!
There is a 'cupboard' either side of the leg space, 4 inches wide, and 17 inches deep, and, at the back, what looks like a music holder (for patterns) that I use to hold a ream of paper.

I haven't opened the top for years - I wonder if I put anything in there?

I have my sewing box right here with my desk

I use it as a footstool :-D

(it has a lovely velvety top, but for some reason I liked the colours orange and avocado when I was in my teens, the decorating craze of the day I guess ... wouldn't give orange house room now)

my sewing machine is in a rubber tub somewhere still from the house move and someday I will find it and work on running up some curtains for all these windows ........

then I'll have to fish around in the sewing box and other odd containers to see what spoolish treasures I might have too :-)

I haven't got such a thing as a sewing box - just tins of sewing stuff - most of it other peoples!!

I believe I got mine for Christmas in about 1966 ... so it has just had its 50th birthday or thereabouts :-D

and most of my pantihose really are older than a majority of people alive today on earth ...

I'm the same, Maggie..

and I've inherited cotton spools from my mother and grandmother, too.

I do find that some of the old fashioned cottons are difficult to sew with, they don't glide, just tangle and break.

My mother gave me my grandmother's sewing box, a fancy affair on a stand, handmade in France so many years ago. It concertinas out. My mother has exactly the same one. I found it took up so much space that my cottons are in shoeboxes, the one I use mostly has become a tangled mess of threads needing such a good sort out.

Maybe I shall do it one of these days. I hardly sew much now, it's so much cheaper to buy… I do miss it but my eyes don't cope with the close work either. :-)

Whilst looking to 'age' mine on the internet, I found some people display their wooden reels :-D

'Displaying' them, surely takes them out of the 'hoarding' scenario :-D

here is my DIY solution for tangled spools from quite a few years ago

get a piece of scrap lumber

hammer a lot of large spiky nails into it at regular intervals, about 2 inches apart or a little more, in rows

flip it over, stick spools onto nails (nails fit two or three bobbins as well), bob's yr uncle

(I guess they don't have to be as large and spiky as mine were, they were just what I happened to have a load of - probably best to use nails just the right length that they stick out the board a little less than the height of a spool, then your board isn't a lethal weapon like mine is)

make your scrap lumber fit your shoebox, and you might fit two layers of spiky boards in each box :-)

I was going to display mine behind glass - saves on dusting, and, as previously mentioned takes them from the 'hoarding' (or, 'why have you got that old tat') scenario to the 'interesting old artefact' - or 'they don't make them like that anymore' scenario :-D

I need to acquire a lot more 'glass' to achieve this goal for all my artefacts, I think :-D

Talking of hiding things behind glass, we got a double glazed sliding window in one of the alcoves with about 200 dinky models. saves on dusting them and in the yrs we have had it not one of the kids have attempted to open the door/window to reach in for a car. with 3 boys that aint bad.
Anne