Craft Corner: Making the Most of a $3 Sewing Kit

Written by Newberg resident Angela Draz.
Got a sewing craft you want to see in this column? Contact Angela at angcraftcorner@gmail.com.

Let’s take a look at a $3 sewing kit and what you can do with it. 

Now, why would I want a sewing kit? You ask. Male or female, it’s a great tool to have with you when you go out. 

Say you are going out with friends and you find your favorite shirt has a small hole in it. Or you’re at a restaurant and you go to the bathroom to check yourself and notice you’ve lost a button. 

This doesn’t have to end the evening before it gets started. You have a sewing kit and now have the skills to make a small emergency repair. 

Let me show you a few stitches and attach a button to get you through the evening. 

For a video on three simple stitches (basting, back, and stretch stitches), check out this YouTube video.

The smallest sewing kit at the local store contains enough supplies to get you through an evening or outing. 

• 10 colored threads (3 yards (36”) each)
• 25-inch tape measure
• 3 hand needles
• 2 safety pins
• Mini scissors
• 4 pins
• Needle threader and 4 buttons

More expensive kits have other supplies: seam ripper, snaps, and other colors of shirt buttons. Sometimes the colored threads are in mini spools, supplying more than a yard of thread. The colored threads are usually common colors that any emergency repair won’t stand out.

The 25” tape is a great tool to have with you. I don’t know how many times I’ve been out and wonder how long my husband’s arm is or how wide his neck is when we need to buy a formal shirt, or my daughter’s waist to find the right fit of jeans. 

The hand needles usually have various sizes of eyes or lengths that you can choose if you need to mend heavier fabrics (larger needles) or sheer fabrics (thinner needles).

The safety pins are usually silver and are great to pin behind a V-neck that’s too low or gaping from the last time you wore it, or a larger button that was lost that you need to join with the button hole to close the garment. Many great uses for safety pins. 

Mini scissors do the job, but aren’t the sharpest tool in the pack. I wouldn’t want to cut fabric, but they will cut the sewing threads just fine.

Pins, or straight pins, are used to keep two fabrics together while you sew. You can use them as a straight marker for your seam you need to sew as well. The shank (part below the colored pinhead) is thick enough that if you don’t have a toothpick when sewing a button, you can use the pin. 

The needle threader is a handy tool that has a wire to fit through the eye of the needle to help thread the needle when sewing. 

The buttons in the kit are usually white and half inch across. They are usually the size of a button-up shirt, or close. For larger buttons, there are usually extra buttons attached to garments for replacement purposes in case you lose a button while wearing the garment. 

Part 1: Threading the Needle

Let’s thread the needle. There are three parts to a hand needle: eye, shaft, and point. The threader is handy to help the thread through the eye of the needle. Cut a length of thread no longer than your arm, or it will be prone to tangle. Let’s start with a short length of about a foot. 

• Put the threader wire through the eye and slip one end of the thread through the wire. 
• Pull the threader back through the eye with the thread, and the needle is threaded. 
• Bring the two ends together and wrap them around your middle finger, catching the end under the main thread as noted in the picture. 
• Take your thumb over the cross of threads on your finger and roll your thumb off your middle finger, spinning the threads around each other. 
• As the threads come off your middle finger, place your index finger to meet the threads with your thumb and pull away from the needle, creating a knot at the end of the threads. 

This takes practice, and the video above may help if you find knotting threads difficult. 

The first stitch is a basting stitch or running stitch. This stitch is a quick stitch to get two fabrics together for a project. 

• Place the needle at the beginning and behind the two pieces of fabric. I’ve placed a pin in the fabrics to not only hold them together, but to create a straight line as a guide. This stitch will bunch and gather the fabric if pulled. 
• The second stitch is the backstitch. This stitch is a sturdier stitch and when sewing two pieces of fabric by hand this way does not cause bunching when pulled because of the backstitch. 
• The third stitch is my go-to when doing quick, on-the-fly repairs of holes. Close the hole and insert the needle with the knot on the inside corner of the hole. This will hide the knot to the inside of the garment. Proceed to whip stitch the hole closed. Needle through one side and parallel into the next. Go to the other side a few threads and insert the needle through both pieces. Continue until the hole is closed. 
• Close all stitches the same way. Finish with the thread to the back of the mended piece. Take up a few threads and pull the needle through almost to the end of the thread. While there is still a loop of threads, put the needle through the loop and draw down. That makes a half knot. 
• Repeat in the same spot and put the needle through the loop again before pulling all the thread through. That completes the knot. 

Sewing a Button

Now that you know how to thread the needle and knot it, take a button and a pin or toothpick and place it on the spot where the button needs to go. Using a pin or toothpick when sewing a button gives the button room when done to allow for the other piece of fabric to have room when buttoned. 

• Put the needle from the back to the front through one of the holes in the button. Make sure the threads are over the pin/toothpick and push the needle from the front to the back through the opposite hole. 
• Do this one more time before moving to the other holes. Move to the other holes and thread twice through. 
• Because the thread is doubled, you only need to do this 2-3 times. 
• Finish with the needle on the back. Loop through the current threads and pull the threads down to the knotting loop as you did earlier above with the stitches. Twice should secure the threads in a knot. 
• Remove the pin/toothpick. The button will be a little lose, which is what you want. 

Is there a sewing project you want to learn from Angela? Send her an email!