Bobbin Earrings Tutorial

Browsing pinterest the other day I came across these bobbin earrings, and I just had to make my own version:

They took all of 15 minutes, too.

Start by threading your, uh, thread through one of the holes in the bobbin, from the center out, leaving a tail of an inch or two:

Rather than use actual sewing thread, I used a thick embroidery thread, the Caron Collection's Waterlilies in one of my favorite colors, African Sunset.  Yarn would work well, too, and novelty yarns could add some interesting texture.

Wrap the thread around the bobbin, anchoring the tail:

Keep wrapping until you get close to the outer edge of the bobbin, and cut the thread.  Using a large, blunt needle, thread the end under a few wraps and out a hole on the other side, to secure the other tail:

Trim the tails flush with the bobbin and add a drop of fray check (or glue or clear nail polish) on the ends, to help keep the thread from unspooling:

It's hard to see (a good thing!), but the fray check is on the hole at one o'clock.

The next step is adding a finding.  The earrings on pinterest used a very large ring through the center of the bobbin, but I didn't want the bobbin spinning about freely.  I tried wire wrapping but it looked messy and spindly:

Heavier gauge wire would have been better, but I didn't have any in the right color.

Instead I switched to chain to create a hanging loop.  Attach a length of chain (mine is five links, make sure yours is an odd number too) to one of the bobbin holes with a jump ring:

and repeat on the other side with the other end of the chain.

Attach your earring finding to the center link:

Done!