Travel sewing/needlecraft kit

Do you sew on the go? I’ve done embroidery on planes, crewel work on trains and quick and dirty mending on the Tube. I especially love to take hand work to the park on a sunny day. (I think we had three last summer.) But sewing and needlecraft involve a lot of bits and pieces, so leaving Atelier Catbox and taking my stitching with me can spell disaster unless I’ve got a way of keeping it all together.

I was charmed by this tutorial at CraftStylish into making a travel sewing kit, but although an Altoids tin is handy for emergency supplies, it’s too small to store everything I need for regular sewing and embroidery (especially crewel — the wool takes up a lot of space). So I biggified mine. I love the two travel kits — one for sewing and one for embroidery — I made from sweet tins and fabric scraps. They fit easily into a handbag and contain everything I need to work on my projects in spare moments away from home. Idle hands and all that.

It’s ridiculously easy to make your own with a similar tin and scraps from your sewing room. Then, when you want to take your project with you (even just to the couch) it’s just a matter of grab and go. My kits are stuffed with my favorite sewing and embroidery shinies and include a needle-polishing pincushion and a magnetic needle keeper… because you don’t ever want to have to wonder whether the person who sits in your seat next will “discover” the needle you mislaid.

I started by cutting out a felt bottom, as in the tutorial. A felt bottom is a great idea. It stops me rattling like a gypsy dancer every time I run to catch a bus. I made mine by tracing around the tin and cutting out on the line with pinking shears.

Using pinking shears prevents me from obsessing about how the felt isn’t absolutely! perfectly! fitted to the bottom of the tin every time I open it. I hot-glued it in place.

Then I made the pincushion. I traced around the lid of the tin on to a fabric scrap and cut out as before. Then I cut a smaller version of the same shape out of my piece of card, making it a little over 1/2″ smaller on all sides to give a seam allowance plus a little extra room for stuffing.

Then I ran a line of gathering stitches all the way around the fabric, well within the seam allowance.

I put the cardboard back in the middle of the fabric, held it down and gently pulled up on the ends of the bobbin threads to gather the edges slightly…

…then removed the cardboard and stuffed some steel wool into the hollow. Steel wool apparently polishes your needles and keeps them sharp.

I stuck the cardboard back on top of the steel wool, pulled up the threads until the fabric sat snugly around the cardboard, smoothed out the gathers evenly all the way around the circle and knotted the ends to finish the pincushion.

And then we hot glue!

Now for the needle keeper. Super easy. I just took a 1″ badge (this one’s from Wool & Hoop) and pried out the pin back, then stuck a 15 mm neodymium magnet inside instead.

Neodymium magnets are super strong and fun to play with! The needle keeper lives inside my sewing kit, but when I sew I stick it on the lid to keep my needle from roaming when I put my work down for a moment. The curved surface of the badge makes the needle easy to grab.

I also keep one on the knob of my sewing machine to keep my basting and tacking needles handy.

Now the fun part: stuffing your sewing kit full of shinies! Skeins of embroidery thread get hopelessly tangled up. Why not wind them neatly on some vintage-style thread cards from Sajou?

You’ll need some scissors, of course. I don’t know about you, but I find that scissors, like needles, vaporize whenever I put them down for more than 3 seconds. So I use a scissors holder that hangs around my neck on a chain. I got mine from Des Fils et une Aiguille in Paris, but I’ve also seen them online.

Add a couple of needle threaders and you’ve got all you need for embroidery!

My sewing and mending kit contains slightly different supplies. I keep my needles in a wooden needle case (again from Des Fils et une Aiguille, but take a look at these), and I stash scissors, a thimble, a few pins in a scrap of felt, safety pins for emergencies, a seam ripper, buttonhole twist, darning thread and whatever hand sewing thread my project requires. I also carry a measuring tape, in addition to the one I keep in my handbag. I never knew how many things in my life needed measuring until I started carrying a measuring tape.

With this kit I can hem a garment, sew on a button, mend a rip or darn a hole (wool tights are £30 a pair!). I am Ready for Anything that can be tackled with a needle and thread.

As far as I know, everything in these kits is airplane-safe. Actually, I’ve flown with them several times within Europe and nobody’s so much as asked to look inside. Those who have to negotiate TSA screenings may have a different experience.

I’d love to know what you stash in your kit for craftiness on the go!