Sewing kit for Steph

One of my closest friends, Steph, and I met nearly 10 years ago when we were in college at UMd. She was a fine arts major, and I would often be jealous that she got to do things like stay up late making paper for a class assignment, while I sat in my dorm room chin deep in textbooks trying to memorize an insane number of organic chemistry reactions.

These days she lives in Baltimore with her husband and works as an art teacher at a private school outside of the city. We don't get to see each other as often as we would like thanks to the horrific DC-to-Baltimore traffic, but the time we do get to spend is as if no time has passed at all. I really love that quality in our friendship.

This is what I just posted in the mail to Steph for her birthday, which was Wednesday (the 14th):

A mini sewing kit! When folded, this little guy is only 3" wide x 5" tall. Unrolled, it is about 12" wide x 5" tall.

The first section has a tiny pin cushion (I mean tiny! I think this thing is only 1.5" x 1".) and two elastic loops for thread.

In the second section, I stitched a piece of grey felt to keep needles and safety pins.

A small zippered pocket in the third section hides a seam ripper and scissors.

I don't remember specifically where I got the inspiration for this project. I know that Nova made a cute little needle case earlier this year that I really liked.

The phrase "Make do and mend" that I embroidered on the front originates from a 1943 WWII publication by the UK's Ministry of Information.

This pamphlet-style book actually has a lot of useful tips in it, like:

Don’t waste a whole lemon if you only need a drop.

Stick a skewer into the lemon and squeeze out the juice you need.

Wrap the lemon in foil and keep it in the fridge.

and

Mend clothes before washing them as the tear or hole may become unmanageable.

Keep a look out for loose buttons and other fastenings and mend at once.

Save all tapes, ribbons, buttons, hooks and eyes and keep a well-stocked work basket.

and

Freeze leftover pieces of cake until you have enough to make a trifle.


(Quotes from Miss Thrifty. I don't have a copy of the book myself.)

I thought the phrase was especially fitting for Steph who is even more contentious than me about using everything you can and not buying things that you don't really need/can make do without.

I kept the back simple with raw-edge appliquéd rectangles in a few neutral prints. (The polka dot print is actually grey, even though it appears kind of blue in the photos.)

That's it for this week. Have a good weekend everyone!