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Restring RV Window Shades With A Sewing Machine Bobbin

Having to restring RV window shades is a chore that none of us enjoy doing but wear and tear forces us to tackle this task every now and then. You’ll find lots of companies that can restring RV window shades for a price, but doing it yourself is easier than you think.

Read this tip to make RV window shades last longer.

restring RV window shades
Rene Agredano

As this DIY RV article “How to Restring Pleated Shades in Your RV” says, you can use a pleated shade repair kit to fix a broken shade. These kits have everything you need to repair or restring a pleated shade with easy to follow instructions. The shade first aid kits look complicated but if you follow the directions you’ll have your shade back up in minutes.

Use a Bobbin When You Restring RV Window Shades

Watch the RV window shade repair video – but when the shade expert Mark Polk tells you to “loop the cord around the center post of the cord retainer base,” stop and toss that post into the trash.

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These RV window shade cord retainer posts always break. Toss ’em!

restring RV window shades
RV window shade cord retainer post.

Those plastic cord retainer posts never last long and one RVer has a better idea.

Use a metal sewing machine bobbin for the cord retainer post.

restring RV window shades
Metal sewing machine bobbin.

In the May 2015 edition of Trailer Life Magazine, RVer Carol Nofftz of Savoy, Illinois says:

I solved the problem by using an inexpensive metal sewing-machine bobbin that I bought at a sewing center. The bobbin will last forever, and the screw that comes with the original spool fits through the bobbin. Just thread it the same way as it was on the original plastic piece. I have now replaced all of the plastic ones in our RV with metal bobbins. Now if I can just figure out a way for the cords not to break, I won’t have to repair them again.



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