Mommy’s Nap Time – Hand Sewing in Style
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We’re welcoming Emily from Mommy’s Nap Time today. I first met Emily through a swap on Flickr and have enjoyed following along with the beautiful things she makes! Emily is known for her tiny piecing, especially wonky stars, and has a love of saturated colors and Anna Maria Horner. She has pages of finished quilts on her blog, as well as some fun tutorials, especially some adorable pouches. She’s sharing her travel sewing with us today, for more ideas how to bring hand sewing along with you!
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Hi! I’m Emily from Mommy’s Nap Time. If you’re not familiar with my blog feel free to check it out! I love sewing tiny blocks, paper piecing, and improv. You can find my recent finished work here, and my tutorials here.
Now for the hand sewing fun! Today I’m going to share how I travel with my hand sewing projects. In truth I don’t do a ton of handwork, but I do go to a monthly Stitch B*tch & Brew (hand sewing at a bar!) – so I try to always have something on hand to embellish.
My method of travel is to have one pouch to carry all the essentials, a variety of floss and thread colors, a handful of hexies, needle book, pincushion, thimble, and scissors. If I need to leave the house in a hurry I can grab this sewing kit along with the quilt or project to be worked on, and I know that I’ll have everything I need for an evening of handwork!
I originally designed this pouch for my friend Emily (we have the same name, cool huh?). Emily does so much more hand sewing than I do and she needed something to hold all the essentials. While creating a pouch for her I also refined the instructions, and they’ll be published at a later point. The pouch that I use, is the pattern test – that Emily made to be sure that my instructions worked well! (Yes, she carries one that I made, and I carry one that she made!)
Here are my favorite features of this pouch. It is large enough to hold a medium project – or a 10″ embroidery hoop. The outside pocket provides easy access to the essentials, scissors, needle book, and thimble. Emily made one adjustment to the pattern to include a bit of felt on the pocket flap – to catch those stray pins quickly!
My needle book and tiny pincushion were tutorials from last year’s “Summertime Adventures Series”, the tutorials can be found on my blog.
When I am merely stitching down a binding (I do most of those by machine now), I use the smaller hand sewing kit – It holds the needle book, thimble, pincushion, scissors, and thread. Just the basics.
Finally here’s a little bit of hand sewn eye candy. A little pillow I embroidered for my daughter a couple years ago. Teeny little script. She loves knowing that it’s “hers” no one can steel something when it has your name on it!
Love the pocket on the outside and the teeny pin cushion! I need a little pin cushion for my hand sewing pouch and was wondering how to avoid losing it in the bottom of the pouch, it looks so cute tied to the scissors!
These are perfect projects for on the go. Thank you for sharing!
Those pouches are lovely, and it’s “sew” sweet that you and your friend Emily made each other’s. But,. I do think my favorite part of this post is the idea of “Stitch B*tch & Brew”. I’ll have to suggest that to my bee!
Love the little mini pincushion. I am going to need to make me one of those. Always losing track of my needle when doing hand work. Not sure why I didn’t think of that.. Thanks for sharing what you use when you are working on hand projects.
I love the bag! Especially that it can fit a hoop in it. Great for summer travel.
I really like your pouch!
Gorgeous pouches – much better than the zip-lock bags I use for carrying my sewing around!
Cute pouches and little accessories! Love your DD’s pillow.
I am just using a pouch to carry everything, but I really need to think about upgrading to a larger pouch for my embroidery 🙂
Totally love these projects. So fun to have a friend with the same name, isn’t it!
at a bar, that just tickles me! For one who does not do many hand projects, I sure love what you make. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for the great inspiration – I’ll check out your blog. I love anything teeny – the pincushion, the name stitching, etc. Great work!
each pouch is so cute. love the little pillow. thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the hand sew guest post. I like the smaller needle keeper and pin cushion to use for hand work. In fact, for me that means taking the gear from room to room / chair to chair in my house.
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Love the tiny pin cushion and the scissors! I really need to get me some. We are moving back to Texas at the end of the year and I’m so excited to work on some EPP on the drive. I need to make a pouch to carry everything, the needle book, and that cute little pin cushion!
I love that your friend is carrying something you made and you carry something she made. It is so lovely that you can share your creativity with someone special in your life.
That bit of felt on the pocket flap is so smart!:))
I think I accidently posted my comment on the wrong post! I wanted to say that your little bag is amazing, and that I love thepockets to hold all the extra bits so they can be easily found.
This is how I travel with my hand sewing as well… just a pouch or two!
wonderful project thanks
Gorgeous pouches, and your quilts are stunning!
Wonderful projects and great ideas. Thanks.
You’ll need a few special tools to get started. It’s important use a hand quilting thread. These threads are often wax coated for strength, stability, and to prevent tangling. (If you choose to use an uncoated thread, you can coat it yourself with quilters’ beeswax.) You’ll want to try using a between needle, which are shorter than many other sewing needles. The shorter needle is important for keeping control over the length of your stitches. A quilting hoop or frame is important to keep all three layers of the quilt sandwich from sliding around while you sew. And finally, you’ll need to choose a thimble. They come in a variety of styles including steel and leather. You may want to try several types to what feels most comfortable to you.
I have an old makeup bag, so old the plastic has completely peeled away that holds small scissors, thread, pins, measuring tap and needles stuck in the sides. I keep thinking I will make or get something better but it is so handy to grab ad go. Like yours a lot.
The yellow (!) bag is awesome, and the “stitch, b*tch and brew sounds like a lot of fun!
Love the little additions to your bag so it is always set up and ready to head out the door! Your SBB sounds fun, but I hope everyone uses blunt needles that evening !!
We’re welcoming Emily from Mommy’s Nap Time today. I first met Emily through a swap on Flickr and have enjoyed following along with the beautiful things she makes! Emily is known for her tiny piecing, especially wonky stars, and has a love of saturated colors and Anna Maria Horner. She has pages of finished quilts on her blog, as well as some fun tutorials, especially some adorable pouches . She’s sharing her travel sewing with us today, for more ideas how to bring hand sewing along with you!
Hi all, How do you sew or glue elastic onto fabric to create a curtain without a sewing machine?Cheers for the really good article.
Adorable!!