With my fancy for sewing cases and needle-books, of course I am always looking the sewing accoutrement to go inside. For some odd, unknown reason I am particularly fascinated by two of them – bodkins and thread winders. I’ll touch on the bodkins sometime in the future. Today I want to talk about a great source for thread winders. I found Scarlets Scarab’s website sometime back. There was something about the warmness and color of the materials they choose and the lines in the work that greatly appealed to me. I finally put in a sampling order last Friday.
They arrived this week.
I couldn’t be more pleased.
As I said, I ordered an assortment of thread winders. This included both bone and horn in their flower, square, wheel, crab-babies, smu, and fancy thread winders. Kim, the proprietor, also included one of their fish and large thread winders. Can I say I just love the fish? It is beyond adorable. One of the things I like about the thread winders themselves is they are handmade. You can see this in how the symmetry isn’t quite perfect. I rather like that. I also like the smooth texture and fine shaping. I greatly prefer the thinner profiles of these over other bone or horn thread winders I’ve seen. They are easily half to a third the width with a smooth edge. Visually, I prefer the shape of the crab-babies, the smu and the flowers. Once I wind some thread on them, I’ll share my thoughts on which seem to be the most practical. (Hopefully, that will be in the next couple days.)
There are several more items on the site I would love to order including their awls, the bone thimble ornaments and, the long horn hair pin. I also think Dan might have to get some dice for Christmas. I wonder if he would like the compass.
Addition:
I’ve been playing with the thread winders & have a few thoughts. For a larger amount of thread such as you would have in a full sewing basket, I think the square and flower thread winders are the way to go. See how on the square I have thread started at the small crossing? I think this thread winder will hold a good amount of thread in those notchs nicely. On the flower, the winding starts at the crossing but then can also use the dip in the petals. For sewing cases, I think the petite crab-babies are an excellent choice. They hold a nice amount of thread and will tuck into a case easily. The smu has the notch which is helpful for holding the end of the thread.
If I Had My Own Blue Box: 
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