Brother Sewing and Embroidery Bobbins 10-Pack, SA156,Clear

I was a little disappointed that my brand new sewing machine was incompatible with the 30 or so bobbins I already owned, but these are the right ones for my machine. They are larger than the old fashioned ones. I read some bad reviews on a generic version, so I went with the name brand Brother bobbins since I have a Brother sewing machine. I like that the packaging is actually recyclable, but would be even happier, if they had metal bobbins available. (PS. The few bobbins that actually came with the machine had nice little clips that kept the bobbins from unraveling. These bobbins here do NOT come with any clips and I cant seem to find the clips for sale anywhere.)

I couldnt find this bobbin in either of our local fabric stores, and was happy to find them on Amazon. I recently purchased by first Brother machine, and the bobbin is every-so-slightly different from my Singer. I cant tell from which is which by looking at them, but the Brother machine can tell, believe me! I accidentally grabbed a filled Singer bobbin when sewing on the Brother yesterday and had all kinds of problems with loopy thread and tension issues, until I finally figured out what Id done. Moral of the story is: just because some bobbins look alike -- theyre not -- and the machine knows! Now I know to keep them separated in clearly marked containers. Good purchase at a good price.

So glad to have extra bobbins

I have a Brother SE400 which requires a certain type of bobbins, these, and so I needed to order a set of these. I had picked up non-named brand previously but those didnt seem to work well with my machine. I returned those and spent a dollar or so more to have the Brother bobbins. Using these bobbins gives me the peace of mind that my machine will stay in good working order. Brother is certainly going to make a product that can work well with their machine. Pros: Works like a charm and I am super happy! Cons: None I would buy these and will probably buy more very soon!

Very good price. 10 bobbins. I compared it to the original bobbin that came with the brother sewing machine I recently purchased and they are very identical ( size, weight, holes, etc ). I cant even tell them apart. I have not actually used these for sewing but I am confident they will work with no issue.

These are the bobbins recommended for my new Brother XR1355 sewing machine and theyve worked perfectly in it. Brother also sells these same bobbins with clips to keep the loose thread ends contained but you cant just buy the clips by themselves — thats unfortunate. Poking around on the Internet though, I saw a suggestion to take clear plastic tubing with an inside diameter of ½ and slice it into rings thin enough to fit between the sides of the bobbin. Make a single slice through one side of a ring and wrap that now curved strip of plastic around the thread on the bobbin — works great! (and its cheap!) I need cheap to compensate for the nametag premium these carry. These are genuine Brother SA156 bobbins and you pay a premium for that genuine adjective. I have purchased other, less expensive bobbins that are supposedly just like these Brother bobbins but have not had very good luck with the knock-offs. Some of them have produced tension problems or skipped stitches but others seem to work OK. Its a real crap shoot. Im tight with a buck but its not saving anything to buy something less expensive if it doesnt work properly. Comparing these to some of the substitutes Ive noticed a few things. 1. These tend to feel and look higher quality than the knock-offs. The plastic has a slight bluish tint to it but it is clear and generally flawless — the mold marks are not very obvious. The substitutes are usually colorless, feel thinner, and often have noticeable molding flaws. 2. The genuine article has a number on the center cylinder or hub when looked at from the side — possibly identifying the date or location where it was made — theres no obvious reason for it to be there. The knock-offs may have numbers in other places but I did not see any on the hub on any of the ones I purchased. 3. Looking down through the hole in the center of the bobbin, there is a notch on one side of the opening — both top and bottom. The notches line up — theyre located in the same vertical line through the bobbin. The knock-offs have the notches located on opposite sides of the center hole. If one is on the lefthand side looking down at the top, if you feel underneath the other will be on the righthand side — with the genuine bobbins theyd both be on the same side of the opening. 4. At first glance, the bobbins appear to have 4 holes to push the first bit of thread through when winding the bobbin — two on the top and two on the bottom. Closer inspection of the genuine bobbins show that each side has only one hole, not two. The second mark looks very much like a hole but it does not penetrate the side of the bobbin. The holes, like the notches, are located directly above and below each other. The knock-offs often actually have two holes on each side — one larger than the other. The larger holes come close to the size in the genuine bobbin but, like the notches on the knock-offs, are located diagonally on each side. Someone in China apparently decided providing a similar appearance was good enough — function wasnt important. I hate paying a premium price for something as inexpensive to produce as plastic bobbins but that seems to be the only way to guarantee theyll perform properly. Ive just run across another website called SewingPartsOnline dot Com which guarantees that their generic equivalents of genuine parts will perform as well. Im going to try ordering some of their SA156-equivalent bobbins and will try to remember to come back here and update this review with the results.

Much better than the off brand that I bought.

THIS IS THE SIZE THAT WAS RECOMMENDED FOR MY MACHINE!!!

My poor Brother XR-65T has had all sorts of bobbin problems over the years Ive had it. I thought it was a piece of junk until someone suggested trying the SA156 OEM bobbins in my machine (and giving the area around the feed dogs and bobbin race a good cleaning). Holy cow, it was like night and day -- no more tension issues, no more thread nests and no more headaches. I learned on a vintage Singer and assumed for many years that generic multi-machine bobbins were fine because they worked without problems in that older machine. Now I know my Brother is just very particular about having in-spec bobbins to work correctly and will be sticking with these recommended ones from here on out.

I have several different sewing machines and all use different bobbins. I have purchased brother bobbins for my embroidery machine before and they were not the right ones so I was a little concerned but these are the right ones!!!! I have marked them so I can easily tell them apart!