My Katte Beth Sewing Kit

6 or 7 years ago, our friend, Katte Beth , gave my daughter and me each a sewing kit as a prezzie for Christmas. My friend, Lini, the Essex Hooker was talking about sewing kits and I told her I would share mine with her.

It is made from a fishing tackle box from Wal-Mart. She put inside the box a folding pair of scissors, what she thought was a seam ripper, but was actually a knit-picker, a couple of spools of thread and a Lo-Ran magnetic needle case. It is the exactly right size to throw in your purse, suitcase or work bag.

I have since amended the contents to suit me. No surprise there, eh?. Two months after I got the box and while I was working at the LQS in S.E. Denver, my bosses had gone to Japan and while there, they toured the Clover Notions Factory and brought us all back Clover Purse Size sewing kits, with "real" scissors. So, I traded out the folding ones for the Clover ones. The next Christmas, my friend, Darla gave me a poly - clay decorated needle holder made from a glass vial, so I traded out the needle case. Meanwhile, I added my favorite leather thimble and a metal thimble for tough sewing, as I was making a lot of Ren Faire garments at the time. I also put a grommet setter in the box, that, with the hammer I keep in the truck meant grommets could be set anywhere. Later down the line, I got a lovely gift box from an un-secret sister that included a bit of wool roving. At that time, I hadn't started needle felting and wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. Eventually, I rolled it into an egg shape, stuck in the toe of a stocking and tossed it into the washer with a knitted bag I was felting and wallah, a pin cushion was born. I ran a ribbon through the long axis and added a button to hold the knot and attached it to the box. I also got an actual seam ripper to go in the box as well. The knit - picker was a serendipitous mistake as it is a handy thing to have. There are also 3 different types of bodkins, for drawing lacing and elastics through casings, just in case an end gets lost in a chemise. There are as well, safety pins, straight pins and two spools of thread (these change according to project being worked, of course).