Hotel Sewing kits
I always picked up sewing kits in hotels. I thought they would be useful to me on the rest of the trip or when I got home. If one of the kits was not needed, it could be a gift, or something useful to put in a DIY Christmas cracker or home made birthday card.
Supermarket Sewing Kits
I also buy little sewing kits in supermarkets. And sewing shops.And craft shops.
Supermarket Sewing Kit. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
I offered a sewing kit to a friend. She shrugged and handed it back to me, saying, "No thanks. I can't sew."
I am going to tell you how to thread a needle, tie a knot in your thread, and sew a hem on a dress or long curtain.
Sewing is one of my joys in life. It is so simple and so often needed when travelling or at home. When might you need to sew?
1 Sew up a ladder or run or hole in a garment.
2 Sew a patch over a hole or stain.
3 Sew on a loose button.
4 Sew or a replacement button.
5 Sew a hook and eye onto a loose neckline.
6 Sew ribbons onto a hat or scarf to stop it falling off or blowing away.
7 Sew up a seam which has pulled apart.
8 Turn a towel into a beach bag.
9 Sew a lining in a bag.
10 Sew a long ribbon into the inside of a bag to help you find your doorkeys and not lose them when you use them.
Let's start with what you need.
1 Needle.
2 Thread.
Optional extras:
Scissors or knife to cut thread.
Small buttons.
Hooks and eyes.
Needle threader.
Thimble.
Assorted threads to match any garment or fabric.
What You Should Know About Needles
If you don't have a needle, ask the hotel housekeeping department. Ask hotel reception. Ask the local supermarket if they sell a sewing kit. Check a hotel shop. Ask somebody on the same coach or carriage.
Failing all else, you can pull a thread through loose cloth. Supposing you have a hanging thread or loop on the front of a garment, but you don't want to leave it looking untidy, nor to cut it and risk creating a ladder or run. Bend the cloth so you can see the thread through a 'hole' or gap.
Use any small stiff item to grab through the offending thread or behind it. Ideally use something with a pointed tip. Use a sewing pin, a drawing pin, a plastic or wooden toothpick or a cocktail stick. Even a plastic stick from a kitchen drawer for picking up olives.
Lever through the offending thread.
Typing a knot in a loose thread
To secure the thread at the back, tie a knot. If the thread is short, this might take you a couple of tries. Fold a loop on top of the end of the thread. Pull the thread through the loop. Grab the end of the thread and simply pull the loop tight, ideally pushing the loop as near as possible to the surface of the fabric.
Threading A Needle
If the eye of the needle is large you might find you do this quickly. If it doesn't work try the following.
1 Sit in a good light, by a window in daytim or at night by a table lamp.
2 Hold the needle over a bright contasting colour, such as a white table surface, white fabric sheet, or a piece of A4 white paper.
3 Turn the needle so you can see the hole. You could hold it in mid-air, or lay it down almost on a horzontal surface and hold your hand steady.
Typing a knot in a Sewing Thread
Before or after threading your cotton thread through the needle, you need a knot at the end. I suaully thread the needle first, then tie the end. That's because one end of the cotton might be easier to thread through the eye of the needle.
I hold the end of the cotton. Loop it twice around my fingertip. Carefully slide the end of the needle under the cotton where it is over my fingernail leaving a slight hollow at the side of the nail. You could do this slowly and carefully. Or wear a thimble. Or even use the eye end of the needle instead.
After you have the double loop on the end of the cottom, you want to slide the loop near the end of the cotton before pulling it tight. If you don't hold the end of the cotton, the loop is likely to slide off the end. So hold the end of the cotton and slide the loop down to the end.
If the loop is too far from the end, never mind. If you want to avoid having a string sticking out of your fabric from the end of the cotton, you can either sew over this end, or cut it off near the cotton.
Threading the Needle
If you have a set of needles of different sizes, the largest needle with the largest eye is easiet to thread. The smallest needle will sew neatly enablying you to do small stitches and cut through the fabric quicker. But if you do not have a thimble the sharp point of a small needle is likely to prick you.
I generally pick a larger needle and sew large stitches for speed. I am usually sewing a hem for a dress when I am online and nobody will see, or on the back or inside of the garment. Pick what suits your circumstances.
Buy self-threading needles. The sort where you pull the cotton down from the top. Occasionally your cotton is large and does not seem to pull through. You try three times and think, this is a dud needle. Then the cotton goes through.
Buy a kit with needles already threaded.
Spend half an hour on a sunny day when you have time, threading lots of needles with different colours of thread including black and white. Then when you want to sew in a hurry before leaving for an event you have a needle already threaded.
Needle threader
Needle Threaders
Buy sets of needle threaders, the little ones with tiny diamond shape loops which you push through the needle eye.
You can buy them in sets of several.
Mercerized Cotton
Buy the more expensive cotton on big wooden spools. Mercerised cotton is 'waxed' so it does not have lumps which make it harder to sew.
Cutting the Thread
Have pair of sewing scissors handy. No scissors? Are you sure? What about nail scissors, kitchen scissors, office scissors.
Any sharp edges? The sharp edge of the office guillotine for cutting paper.
Try a penknife. Yours. Somebody else's.
A kitchen knife in your hotel suite or home. A bar person. The hotel kitchen.
Failing all else your teeth - but this can damage teeth.) Or somebody else's teeth if you don't mind getting their saliva on your thread. (You could wash your hands, the garment or thread.)
Starting to sew
Keep your sewing on a hard surface, not on your skirt or you risk sewing the item onto your own clothes. Remember Murphy's law. Enything which can go wrogn will do so.
Pin together both ends of two items so you don't reach the far end or your hem or seam and find you have gathered the middle and finished with one end of the fabric overhanging.
Stitches
Make your first stitch start with the end behond the knot hidden, inside a seam or at the back of the garment. You might sew backewards and fowards a couple of times to secure the end. If you do a long running stitch (up and down in a stright line a half a centimeter in from the edge of the fabric) you can pull it out easily if you make a mistake or want to sew more neatly with smaller stitches later.
However, I rarely start again or re-sew, so I do a reverse stich every few stitches to secure the thread. It is less likely to pull out.
Another advantage of the long running stitch is time saving. If you have a long needle and a light fabric, you can get several bits of cloth bunched up on the needle before you stop to pull the needle out.
Ending your sewing
At the end, take a couple of double stiches or sew back an inch and then tie a knot in an invisble place.
Doubled Cotton
If your cotton is fine, you might want to sew on a button more securely, or to secure anything else. After threading the needle, you can tie both ends of the cotton together.
Happy Sewing
If you have any questions, please send them to me, prefereably on Facebook.
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a travel writer and photographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.
Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a language evaluator or grammarian. We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and other language clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.
I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other Wednesdays are workshops on app
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