Elongated spool of thread, used in the textile industry.
In modern processes, the spun fibres are wound on bobbins; the weft filling in weaving comes off bobbins. Bobbins are essential to the manufacture of bobbin lace (see lacemaking ). The first bobbin lace probably originated in Flanders in the early 16th century. Early bobbin lace consisted of rows of deep acute-angled points worked from a narrow band, and the patterns were usually similar to those of the needle laces. It was much used for ruffs and collars in the 16th–17th centuries. See also tapestry .