I’ve been sewing for years now and if there’s one thing I’ve learnt along the way, it’s the importance of staying organized. Unfortunately, I learnt this the hard way.
All excited about my new , I decided to sew Christmas pillow covers to give away as gifts to family and friends.
I bought all my supplies- assorted Christmas fabric, different colored threads and satin ribbons. I just couldn’t wait to get started. Smack dab in the middle of it all, I broke my last machine needle.
I had to put everything on hold and by the time I managed to go across and get some more needles, I just didn’t have time to complete all the pillow covers before Christmas. It was a huge disappointment. If only I had thought about buying a couple of extra sewing needles!
There’s nothing more frustrating than having to put a project on hold because of something that could have easily been avoided had you only been a little more organized.
Staying Organized is Easy!
That’s right. Staying organized when sewing is just a matter of getting together your basic sewing supplies and keeping them handy.
What Your Basic Sewing Kit Should Contain
With some of the items, it may sound like I am stating the obvious, but sometimes we tend to overlook the most obvious and that could just unravel your whole project. If you’ve ever wanted to open up a hem or loosen a shirt and realized you did not have a seam ripper, you’ll know what I mean about being organized.
Here’s what I have in my sewing kit:
- A measure tape – cannot do much without it, whether you are stitching a complex garment or making simple pillow covers
- Pair of 7” scissors – used only for cutting fabric
- Smaller pair of sewing scissors – for snipping and notching
- Pair of pinking scissors – the zigzag edges are great for decorative purposes and also for trimming fabric without fraying
- Long, large headed pins – these are easier to use as compared to regular pins
- Pin cushion – keeps pins handy
- Sewing needles
- Needle threader – makes threading the needle easy and saves a lot of time and frustration
- A selection of thread in different colors
- Extra bobbins – comes in handy when working on multiple projects requiring different colors of thread
- A thimble
- A selection of fasteners- press buttons, hooks and eyes
- Machine needles in different sizes – thin needles for sheers and delicate fabrics, medium sized for cotton and heavy duty needles for denim and upholstery
- Seam ripper – very, very useful for opening out seams
As you move on to more specialized projects, you may find you need a few more specialized supplies but these above list includes the absolute basics you would need to get started with.
