I don't think Mom ever threw hers out either, because I remember playing with her box of empty spools as a kid. We would pretend they were people, and the little ones were babies and the tallest ones were daddies. Maybe that's why I can't throw them out...it would almost be like murdering little spool people. Do you still save your empty spools, Mom?
My kids seem to think they are wonderful, so maybe that's the best use for empty spools afterall, something that entertains toddlers while Mama sews!I'd love to hear your thread spool thoughts!!
Jessica
My grandma used to give us fabric scraps and we would "make" clothed for our spool people :-). Also useful as beads for necklaces, and bowling pins.
ReplyDeleteWhy do I all of a sudden feel guilty for throwing away my empty spools...
ReplyDeleteMy grandma used to string empty spools on shoe strings to make necklaces for me. I remember wearing them all day while I played. That brought back a precious memory!
ReplyDeleteJessica--I had to laugh when I read about "murdering little spool people!" Too funny. Yes, I still save spools, but then when I start tripping over them in the sewing room I throw them out.
ReplyDeleteI've often felt a feeling of accomplishment when I've emptied yet another spool of thread. I guess that's the "sewing badge of honor" you wrote about.
Onward, ho! I'll be saving all my spools and giving them to your sweet babies, who, by the way, look adorable playing with their little spool people.
Cute kids! I think the spools would make great legs for boxes. To make them more colorful (for toys) you could modge podge fabric or paper around the middle.
ReplyDeleteI miss the "old" spools that were made with wood.
I have been given thread by so many people over the years, and now have a HUGE stash of it. I keep all the wooden spools because they are so cute. But when I manage to finish off some of the plastic spools in my stash, I throw them out. While I am hugely grateful for all the thread I have been given, and therefore do not need to buy, I am always happy to see the stash go down.
ReplyDeletePart of my says I should save them for some craft project......but I have toooooo much stuff right now. So, out they go.
My kids played with my bag 'o spools at church this Sunday and shared with the family sitting in the pew in front of us. It is so fun to see them playing with something that requires them to use their imagination. I can never throw mine away either!
ReplyDeleteCute kids, cute post. I don't save any of my spools unless they are the old wooden ones.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter turned mine into a person named isabel. She gave her pipe cleaner arms and a button face. She carried her around all day.( She is 7)
ReplyDelete~Rachel
I use mine to store my homemade bias tapes. I forgot where I learned it (some wonderful bloggy idea, I'm sure) but it's wonderful.
ReplyDeleteMurdering little spool people...LOL!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid we always gave ours to the cats...they *loved* batting 'em around the house! I don't have cats, but I sometimes save mine for my dad's cats.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes string one or two on some yarn and hang the, from under my embroidery machine table and let the cats bat at them....other than that the plastic ones go to the trash.
ReplyDeleteI know! They must be good for SOMETHING! I have an old can on my sewing table that I toss them into so I'll have them when I find some other way to utilize them. They do make good stacking toys. I guess if you were really ambitious you could use them as axles to make toy cars. Not one to be so ambitious, I often use mine to wrap up loose bits of ribbon.
ReplyDeleteI always save my spools too! I haven't found a use for them yet but I keep thinking that some day I'll come up with a project ;)
ReplyDeleteI don't save mine--I guess I don't sew enough to have a collection of empty ones! But my grandma had a good collection of wooden ones that I liked playing with.
ReplyDeleteMy kids and my grandkids seem to have the same ideas regarding toys. They all had more toys than a toy store in their bedrooms/playrooms but in all cases preferred to play with *non* toys. LOL. In our house empty cardboard rolls, boxes of any type, thread spools, buttons, yogurt containers empty makeup containers anything that would be trash in any other household, was a toy at our house. We had a low drawer in our kitchen that we called the "Tupperware" drawer but it contained any plastic container that was too small to stack in the cupboard without wasting space. This drawer was the one that our toddlers were allowed/encouraged to play with when I was working in the kitchen. It goes without saying that whenever we actually *used* something from this drawer, it had to be washed first. Many times I found a half eaten cookie or a piece of toast - sometimes an apple core - in the drawer. I don't know how many times after cleaning the playroom I would vow "No more toys. They never play with them, only take them off of the shelves and then I have to clean it up!!" Goes without saying it never happened that way. And at this very moment I was online looking for Christmas gifts of *yes* more toys for my grandkids. Maybe instead I should buy some spools of thread, paper towels and toilet tissue that I can wrap up for them as future toys. LOL I don't think that would fly! So YES, I keep all my spools and empty containers and my grandkids love to play in my button box which is actually a Rubbermaid rectangular dish basin. They love to dump it out on a big tray and sort, examine and categorize the buttons. Once my granddaughter had to do a project using 100 of something for the 100th day of school celebration. She made a picture with rows of buttons 10 of each of 10 colours trying to make each of the 10 of each colour as different from the others as she could. I framed it in a shadow box and hung it in her room and she talks about it all the time.
ReplyDeleteSorry to comment again but this story came to mind and the other comment was already too long to add it to. We used to take care of one of our grandsons when he was 3 and 4 years old and he used to be crazy about cardboard tubes. He would unroll half a roll of toilet tissue to get to the roll and tell us "Well, it was almost all gone!" and he drove everyone batty constantly hovering waiting for anything that came on a roll to be finished. He not only did this at home, but whenever we visited anywhere he would scout the place for near empty rolls. One day he was with me at the fabric store and they had a large number of the heavy cardboard rolls that some fabrics come on standing in a trash can at the end of the cutting table. The manager was a good friend of mine and we were chatting while she was cutting my stuff. She noticed Evan eyeing up the big rolls and explained they were the things that fabric came rolled on. I knew they reused some of them so when Evan whispered to me could he have one I said that no, I didn't think so because they reused them. My friend however said "we have lots more in the back that we won't use, do you want to pick one out?" Of course his eyes got huge and he said "really??" He held her hand to go thru a very dark quite scary back room to get to the warehouse area where they indeed had dozens and dozens of cardboard tubes taller than him standing along the walls. She told him he could have as many as he wanted and asked him how many. He said "maybe umm, two, no wait, three? Cause I could share them with my brother" and he looked up at her hoping she would say yes. Then he had to choose. You would have thought he was buying a car the way he examined all the tubes. We picked 3 and he insisted on carrying them himself - but he had to drag them because they were too long for him to lift. He walked thru the store to the parking lot blushing and just beaming at everyone and we went to the car where I had to put them in the trunk. As I was putting them in, he looked at me, his eyes welled up and he swallowed and said "Grandma, this is the happiest day of my whole life!!" So again, yes, I save everything LOL!
ReplyDeleteLove this story! How sweet! I bet he remembers that for the rest of his life!
DeleteWe sure could use them at school! Students constructing pulleys, for science projects, are always scrambling to find enough plastic or wooden thread spools.
ReplyDeleteToo bad there isn't an exchange where teachers could gather materials for hands-on projects, inexpensively! There never seems to be money or sources for these items which are often discarded.
Help!
We take those empty spools and turn them into Christmas ornaments! Take felt (sticky back works best)of various colors and ribbons (gold works great)...and make little drums out of them!
ReplyDelete