bobbin

bobbin, implement on which thread is wound, used in sewing, spinning, weaving, and lace making. Sometimes the wooden spools of sewing thread are called bobbins. The bobbin of a sewing machine is a metal cylinder, with a flange at each end, on which the lower thread is wound to be carried through the shuttle to the seam. In some primitive handweaving the weft, or woof, was wound on a bobbin flanged at one end and passed or carried by it through the warp. In tapestry weaving, bobbin looms are essential, as weft strands of different colors must go back and forth for the distance required by the design, somewhat in the manner of an embroidery needle darning in a pattern. In making pillow lace, bobbins form an important part of the equipment, as each thread of the pattern requires a different bobbin; intricate patterns call for hundreds of bobbins to hold the fine thread in order. Bobbins for lace making are made in various shapes and sizes, from a variety of materials, as walnut, rosewood, boxwood, and olive wood, glass, metal, ivory, coral, malachite, and bamboo, and are ornamented with carving, painting, or engraving.

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bobbin

Elongated spool of thread, used in the textile industry. In modern processes, the spun fibres are wound on bobbins; the weft filling in weaving comes off bobbins. Bobbins are essential to the manufacture of bobbin lace (see lacemaking). The first bobbin lace probably originated in Flanders in the early 16th century. Early bobbin lace consisted of rows of deep acute-angled points worked from a narrow band, and the patterns were usually similar to those of the needle laces. It was much used for ruffs and collars in the 16th–17th centuries. See also tapestry.