You know those little round circles of red felt on a sewing machine spool pin? Did you ever wonder what they are there for? Mine disappeared long ago, and I never worried about replacing them. Most machines I’ve ever seen or used didn’t have them, so I figured it wasn’t a big deal. I wasn’t too long ago that I found out they are to protect the paint under your spool of thread, as that spool constantly spins there. Ok, I knew it before, but I didn’t think it really mattered until I got old machines.
Now if you have a new plastic machine, your machine may not have them or need them. If you have a “modern” metal machine with the spool pin on the back, you may not care. But if you have an old metal machine with the spool pin on the top, you may decide it is worth protecting that paint. You don’t want to wear down that 75-100 year old paint any further. But perhaps you don’t really want an ugly red felt circle there either.
I prefer a pretty pink flower. I’d heard about and seen pictures of spool pin doilies. So much prettier than that red circle! So I decided to make some to dress up my old ladies. Even when those ladies themselves have seen better days, like Jocabed, my 122 year old Singer 27, this pretty little doily can dress her up far better than a red felt circle could.
Perhaps you think there should be other flowers in this garden. I didn’t stop at just pretty pink flowers. I decided to make some white ones out of #10 bamboo crochet thread (on Natalie, my 90 year old National 2 Spool).
And I tried a purple one out of #3 cotton crochet thread, because that’s the only size they had of purple, (on Ruthie, my 85 year old Singer 66). I wasn’t as thrilled with the #3 thread. Too thick, IMO.
If you’d like to make some Spool Pin Doilies for your sewing machine – new or old, you will need #10 crochet thread and a size D crochet hook. You can download my instructions /pattern. FREE to use, just don’t copy, repost, or claim it as yours. Instead share a link to this post (not to the file) so your friends can get their own Free Pattern. Thanks.
Enjoy!
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Meet Ruthie. She’s an 85 year old shirt-tail relative, who joined my family a couple weeks ago. She’s my dad’s wife’s daughter’s husband’s grandmother’s. She shows her age in more than just her style, but also in her wear–which also shows she was well loved and used. She needed a little help in a few areas, but still gets along pretty good for an old gal.
is a slotted rotary cutting guide with slits every 1/2″ to guide your rotary cutter. Make your strips 1/2″ wide or in any multiple of 1/2″ that you desire. If you plan on cutting a LOT of T-shirts into yarn, or if you do strip piece quilting, you’ll find this ruler (and others in this line) invaluable. The 
will cut at 1/4″ increments, but is smaller, for a smaller area.
, a soft minky-like yarn. The grey, boys’ scarves are done in 
. To the right, the purple scarf, is my “practice” run in 
. Although you usually use a 
for Tunisian crochet, since I wanted a larger stitch, I used a straight 
(that I use for crocheting fabric rugs, baskets, and such.) Since I was only doing a few stitches wide, I figured the short length would be OK, and it was. (You can always wrap a rubber band around the end to keep your stitches from coming off, if you have that trouble.) The girls’ scarves are 4 and 6 stitches wide and the smaller one a little over 2.5 feet, and the larger close to 4′. The boys’ scarves are 6 and 8 stitches wide. To do it again, I’d go 8 and 10, as the Homespun yarn really curls up. The smaller boys’ is 4+’ long and the larger 5+’.
, 
and 
. I saw that yes, arm knitting is pretty much like regular knitting, only using your arms as knitting needles. And yes, you really could complete a scarf in 1/2 hour. And yes, I could modify them to suit my style and I’d actually wear them. Talk about win-win-win!
