As soon as I saw this I knew I was going to make at least one up, probably more than one! I dug out my wooden spools all compliments of my Dad. My mother did not sew. She hated it -- even putting on a button was annoying to her.
I checked for National Thread and couldn't find anything there either.
Trimtex is still around, but no longer makes thread. We all know them for their trims -- rick rack, fringes, etc.
Most of the spools say J & P Coats. This company hails from Paisley Scotland and has been around since 1812!
You can read the company's history here:
Once I had the thread cut away from the spools, I measured the width
and then I went into Word and made up a text box a little less than the width. I selected the font and the size -- in this case Comic Sans and 12 and I did a Bold print.
I made a bunch of them up by just copy and paste across the page.
I also made up 2013 so it looked the same from start to finish.
I added a green border as I decided to leave my wooden spools "au natural"
I trimmed the scrolls with my rotary cutter and glued them onto the spools. I placed a dab of tacky glue onto a piece of paper and using my finger I rubbed only enough to make the paper stick to the spool. Not a lot, but you don't need a lot. I ran the ribbon through the spool and then placed the year on the ribbon.
I cut the paper for the year, twice as long as the number, folded it in half and after wrapping around the ribbon glued it together. Just to finish it off, and using a pair of scissors, I curled the end of the paper much like you would do with that curly ribbon.
That was it! I have 3 made now and I'm thinking next year this may be the decoration for the grands listing things teen-agers like, except by this time next year, I'll only have 3 teens instead of 5!
I found this spool amongst the lot. It is really different. The top actually has the middle section slightly higher than the rest. It was the only one in the batch. This one I'm keeping!
Would you like a PDF of the scroll? Okay, it's here