I dislike sitting idly and doing nothing, so I often take small sewing projects along with me when I have appointments or I am traveling. It might be knitting, cross-stitch, a beading project, or a hand-pieced or appliqued quilting project.

I used to just toss the tools in a bag and go, but found myself hunting for the various things I needed. So I spent some time thinking about what I needed for my projects and sat down with pencil and paper to design a kit (or two) for travel. Stick on hook and loop tape keeps the kits closed.

This shows two small cases used to hold supplies for travel.
I found this fun fabric to use to make the kits, and then picked a couple of complimentary colors for the interior.

The sewing kit

This shows an open case, with pockets and elastic to hold the supplies.
My sewing kit.

For sewing projects, I wanted a larger pair of scissors for cutting fabric. My little snips (the black rectangular item) work for cutting thread. I also wanted a thimble, my needles, and some thread. I made pockets on the flap for the flat items, which included my needle case (black with the blue metallic threads on it), a leather thimble with metal disc, and clear adhesive dots. The dots stick to your finger tips and make it easier to grip the needle.

I used elastic to to hold the scissors and and my thread case. The thread case is a dental floss container. My bobbins fit right inside, and I can change them out depending on the color of thread I need for a particular project.

The dental floss case, completely open with the bobbin inserted is on the left. The case with the top flap open shows how the thread comes out just like the floss did.

The small side flaps (green in this one) are to help things from sliding out of the case if they slip out of a pocket.

The beading kit

The kit with beading supplies is similar, but I wanted slightly different tools, and more thread options.

An organizer to hold supplies, it has small pockets and elastic loops to keep things from sliding out.
My beading kit.

I labeled the thread cases here so I could easily tell which color was which. I usually only use basic colors when beading because the thread is rarely visible, but I can change them out as needed with other options.

Hopefully you found this interesting to see how I solved a problem.