the generous blog tutorial by Beverly at Flamingo Toes. It holds my scissors, awl, bead scoop mini pliers, needles and thread. I've used it every day and love it. As thoughts turn to New year and fresh starts, the great studio tidy up begins. I found some old Mill bobbins, rescued from a derelict Mill in my student days... and thought they could be a great base for more beading threads. You can find them for sale on Ebay and Etsy if you're tempted by this idea.You will need some wooden pins. Mine are 5mm diameter and have a round wooden top. You could easily make similar with 5mm dowel and wooden beads.
I painted them with household emulsion (Farrow and Ball Mizzle No 266 and Green Blue No 84). Once dried, I gave them a seal and polish with wax polish.
The fun part comes next, choose some pretty fabric, I used an off cut of cotton patchwork fabric. Trim it to fit around the centre part of the Mill bobbin and glue it with a liberal amount of PVA. This can get delightfully sticky, but has the advantage that, should you ever want to, you can remove the fabric without damaging the vintage bobbin.
Next cut a circle of card about 5mm smaller in circumference than the bobbin end, this will give the bobbin end a stable base, and stop the wooden pins sliding through too far. Glue the card in place.
Cut a circle of sticky back felt about 2mm smaller in circumference than the bobbin end. Stick it on place to cover the card circle.
