We’re talking about how to bring your sewing with you when you travel I travel a lot for work and for personal trips but it can really impact my sewing schedule so I wound up bringing a lot of work with me.
It’s a great way to pass the time when I’m traveling or in hotel rooms and it helps me stay on schedule. So I’ve come up with five tips to help you bring your sewing with you. It’s not always possible or practical to bring your sewing machine with you so you’re pretty much stuck with hand sewing when you’re traveling. If you don’t do a ton of historical sewing like I do then you might not have a lot of hand sewing on your schedule so you may want to save any hand sewing steps such as slipstitching in a lining or turning a hem for when you’re traveling. You can also consider starting a new hand sewing project to bring with you especially if you have a lot of travel coming up such as during the holidays.
Completely handsewn projects such as a baby quilt or a pillow cover like this one that I made for my sister make wonderfully sentimental gifts. Baby quilts and pillow covers are great because they’re small and easy to travel with. Big projects such as large skirts are easy to bring in a car or for a longer trip to work on in the hotel room but they’re not very airline friendly. I like to keep my skirts and bodice is separate so I can just bring one with me on the plane or pack it in my suitcase and bring a smaller project such as an embroidery hoop or a beading project for the plane. The very important reason to keep your airline project small is so you don’t get in other people’s way.
Use shorter lengths of thread when your’re sewing and consider booking your seat on the aisle so that your working hand when you’re sewing won’t punch someone in the face on accident. And while at home we may like to spread out and throw a thread snips on the ground to clean up later, don’t do that in public be sure to keep all your thread snips with you until you can find an appropriate trash can and put all your tools immediately back in the bag. Speaking of the tools you bring you can’t bring your whole sewing room I only trouble with this small makeup bag and occasionally one or two extra things In my bag I’ve got room for any thread that I need for working on my project, air and water-soluble marker, a pack of needles, beeswax for waxing my thread, thread snips and folding scissors, a thimble and seam ripper, and then any trim or embroidery floss that I’ll be using in my sewing.
The snips and this folding pair of scissors are both TSA approved since the blades are less than four inches. These scissors are sharp enough to cut fabric select to have them in addition to my snips. Last time I checked you’re also allowed to fly with needles and pins and also crochet hooks and knitting needles but you should check before your trip. I’ve flown with metal knitting needles before but I have heard that people have had trouble with it so if you’re worried, make sure you bring plastic or wood only. If you really really hate hand sewing you can still bring another crafty project along with you as it’s a great way to relax, pass the time, and feel more accomplished about the hours you may have been stuck on a plane or in a car.
Embroidery, knitting, crochet, and even macrame and friendship bracelets are fun and very mobile projects you can bring with you.