I have bought the clear plastic boxes with small compartments made to store the small HOT WHEELS cars. I put my embroidery threads in the boxes according to colors. I can immediately see the colors I need. These boxes have a handle on them so they are easy to grab to move to take.
When starting an embroidery project I get out a egg carton. I have several that are clear plactic. I put the treads in according to stitch use. When I use the same color several times I just put a slip of paper in the appropriate compartment telling me the preivous use number. If I am doing my work away from home I have a perfect container to carry the thread home in and still have the treads stored according to use. Since I don’t have a designated sewing room the egg carton is a perfect place for me to keep the threads and put them away until the next time I come back to complete the project.
Replies
What a good idea, and thanks for sharing it. And shucks, I just put two of those clear plastic egg cartons in the recycle bag, which was picked up this am. Oh, well, I buy eggs fairly often.
Is your floss wound on cards and then put in the Hot Wheels box or are they in there by the skein? I like mine in the skein and got some boxes in the fishing tackle dept at KMart. They are the frosty vinyl and hold a skein laid flat. I am sure there are other floss storage systems out there as well. I did try the vinyl storage sheets but that got too bulky.
solo
I have a reverse question - where do you get the containers to store hot wheels cars. I need something to store match box cars for the grandkids?
thanks, jane
I found a few of the HW/MB totes on line. http://www.hotcases.com/aboutus.html
The boxes in the Walmart sporting goods department for fishing tackle are less expensive.
The scrap-booking cart sold at Walmart an JoAnn fabric do not have dividers, but if the box is full it does not matter. Each "drawer" is a lidded box and the additional drawers are good for storing stabilizer.
Edited 2/28/2008 3:44 pm ET by spicegirl1
Hi, I just looked at the cases, I had no idea these little cars were collector's items. Thanks for the info. jane
I have bought the containers I have at Walmart. Possible if you are not near a Walmart you could go on line and find some. Good luck
Clear plastic egg cartons? Where are these available--I've never seen one!
I use the styrofoam and cardboard ones to start seedlings, but I could think of a thousand uses for a clear plastic one.
Maybe the clear ones are an east/southern thing? Has anyone in the West seen them?
Edited 3/4/2008 6:24 pm by Teaf5
The clear plastic egg containers I have were from our son's home in Florida. The styrafoam would be just as good since they will hold thread just as well and the clear plastic
Thanks--It's true that the styrofoam ones would work, but I have so many other things stored in styrofoam egg cartons that I'd never know which one had the thread in it!
There are styrofoam egg cartons that are pink so you could buy those if they are available in your area or use a poster paint and paint the tops of the egg cartons that you would store your thread in. I am confident there are any number of ways you could identify the thread storage cartons and have fun thinking up the ways while you were at it. Have a contest between the ladies you sew with and see who comes up the some original thoughts.
Eggland's Best eggs come in clear plastic cartons, as well as a couple of other brands, here in GA.
I don't mean to be gross, but . . .
Just curious, but do you all wash your egg cartons thoroughly and disinfect them before using them to stash items in? I say this, because eggs are covered in chicken feces, which breeds e-coli. I always have at least one egg in the dozen that is noticably covered in feces. All you need to have happen is to put your hand in the egg carton to retrieve a bit of thread, lick your fingers or the end of the thread in order to thread the needle, and voila, you don't know how you got sick.
Berna
Yeah, that is icky. Good point. I haven't actually used the cartons, since I recycled mine before I read the suggestion in this thread. I'm thinking these eggs are washed and stamped on the end, but I'll bet they're not disinfected. Soooooo...
Hi all, When I am doing an embroidery project. I put all of the pieces together, fabric, templates, threads, etc., in a plastic bag. They now have 2 and 3 gallon sizes at the grocery store.
A year or so ago, I saw on Sewing with Nancy an idea for keeping your threads in order. You purchase a small thread rack that can stand next to your machine.
I actually have three different thread racks for doing embroidery. The first one is the 'Nancy' way. I bought a small thread rack and numbered the posts on each row. The top row and the row under it have the same numbers. It keeps the numbers in order and the bobbin thread is in order also. After using this one and not remembering to put the second row of threads on the third row when I was using white bobbin thread, I made a new one. This rack came with a storage box and I never used it for thread. I numbered it from one to thirty in order and I just line up my threads in the order I need them. The first spool I left unnumbered and I keep a stack of bobbins on it all filled with white or black bobbin thread. If I am traveling where I need a lot of thread I take this one with me. Also,I have a real small rack for little jobs and traveling that only has ten posts on it. This one came with my machine cabinet. (see pics)
I put my threads on the posts in the order that I am going to need them. Years ago to keep thread and bobbin together on the same spool, I bought these widgets. To tell me to the color is a duplicate I put one of these 'widgets' on the post. This keeps the number of spools used equal to the number of thread changes and reminds me it is a duplicate color change.
To use my portable racks when doing matching bobbin thread, I either put the bobbin under the spool of thread or I use a different widget that attaches the bobbin to the spool.
This has worked great for me. The only problem I had was with the quality of the first thread rack I purchased. It came apart a couple of times, until I added glue to where the nails were and then put it back together.
The pictures looked OK in preview on my PC, if you have problems, let me know.
Happy stitching, j
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