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a picture of lots of skeins of colourful thread in a big pile. Overlaid is a blue square with white text saying, hand embroidery, five ways to store embroidery threads, www.embellishedelephant.co.uk

5 ways to store embroidery threads

October 27, 2021

Trust me, the more embroidery you do the more threads you will accumulate.

I have quite a stash of threads but I was working on a project and just couldn’t find the right green. So I ended up buying six different greens until I found the one that worked for my project.

And, the more threads you accumulate the greater the need for an organised storage solution.

Whichever storage solution you adopt, my top tip is to make sure that you can easily see the brand and shade number so you don’t end up buying a colour you already have in your stash.

A picture of pink and purple embroidery floss wound onto thread bobbins in a plastic bobbin box

Bobbins

This is my go to method, I love the process of winding the thread onto the bobbin. I store my threads in several boxes organised by colour and I get great joy from opening one of those boxes and seeing all the colours for me to pick from.

The colour number can also be written on the bobbin to help search for an exact shade. Some people store in number order rather than by colour but I love the rainbow look of threads stored by shade.

A picture of five wooden pegs, each has a different colour embroidery floss wound onto it with the floss code marked in blue pen at the top

Pegs

This seems to be a popular way of storing embroidery threads if you look at stylised pictures on Instagram. I’ve tried it and I found it was just to bulky for my storage space.

A picture of an ikea pegboard. Hanging on hooks are a range of skeins of green embroidery thread

Hanging

Pegboards are great for all kinds of craft material storage. Floss skeins are suitable for hanging on hooks and give a lovely visual display of colours. It’s a great method if you have several skeins of the same colour as you can hang these together. But I prefer to hang some bulkier craft materials such as hoops on my pegboard wall.

A picture of many different small clear plastic  self seal bags each containing a different colour embroidery floss

Bags

Self seal plastic bags are great for storing individual colours. Larger bags can be used for all threads of a certain colour way.

I tend to use bags to store cut threads and off cuts.

A pile of different coloured embroidery floss skeins

Drawer/Box

This may be the first storage solution you try but it’s going to get messy as more and more threads accumulate - trust me. As you use the skeins, there will often be a tail left and when in a drawer these tails get tangled.

In addition it is difficult to find a particular colour if everything is loose in a drawer.

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