Green’s Dictionary of Slang

reels of cotton adj.

rotten.

1969		S.T. Kendall Up the Frog 12: ’Is plates o’ meat pen and ink. ’Is almond rocks must be reels of cotton.
1979		R. Barker Fletcher’s Book of Rhy. Sl.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 41: Reels of Cotton Rotten.
1992		R. Puxley Cockney Rabbit.