Pins and Needles: A travel sewing kit, gift idea Tutorial!

The other day while at church I was preparing to teach my class of young women when I felt what I thought was a long hair on my skirt touching my leg.

I reached down to grab the hair and pull it off my skirt.

It wasn't a hair......

It was a thread attached to the hem of my skirt.....

du..du..dun....

When I pulled it most of the hem of my skirt came loose.

There was no hiding it and you better believe those young women noticed.

So of course I pointed it out and we laughed....but it would have been so much better if I'd been prepared with a little emergency travel sewing kit! Right?!

Not that I would have had time to sew the hem back in place but a few safety pins could have done the trick.

I decided right then and there I needed to make one.

And then I thought what a great gift idea!

I have a couple of ideas for these sewing kits floating around in my gray matter so today I'll be sharing

Pins & Needles Travel Sewing Wallet (version one) and version two in a day or two.

What you'll need:
cotton fabric, 3 strips, 3 inches x 7 inches
felt, 4 inches x 7 inches
duck cloth, 4 inches x 7
elastic about 3 1/2 inches
button
thread
scissors
pins
sewing machine

Fold two of the cotton strips in half long way, wrong sides together and press.
Set aside to use later on the inside of the sewing wallet.

With the third 3" x 7" piece of fabric fold the long edges into the center and press.

On the right side of the 4" x  7" piece of duck cloth pin your folded and pressed piece of fabric.
 Top stitch close to each folded edge.

Working with the other strips of fabric you folded in half and pressed,

pin one on your 4" x 7" piece of felt.

The raw edges of the fabric will be parallel and about a finger width (or 3/4") away from the edge of the felt.

Sew along the length of the fabric strip, sewing close to the edge.

With your other strip of cotton fabric pin the raw edges together with the edge of the felt.
Sew down the length as close to the edge as possible.

These strips of fabric will form the small pockets in your Pins & Needles wallet.

Place the duck cloth and felt pieces right sides together and pin.

Fold the elastic into a loop place between the right sides of the duck cloth and felt.
Pin the elastic loop in the middle of one of the short sides.

Sew a 1/4" seam around the perimeter of the wallet leaving a 2" space open to turn the wallet.
Don't forget to back stitch at the beginning and the end.

When you sew over the elastic I like to back stitch to go back and forth over the elastic to make it really secure.

Trim threads and the corners to reduce bulk.
Turn right side out.
Press.
Fold in half and mark the center with pins.

Sew a straight stitch over the center line to hold the pockets in place and mark where the wallet will fold.
Top stitch around the perimeter of the wallet as close to the edge as possible.

Hand stitch a button on the outside for the elastic loop closure.

Fill with emergency sewing supplies and you're finished!
The pockets are perfect for holding little cards with emergency thread.....umm....you could even keep an extra bandage in there too for when you just get too crazy with the needle and thread.

Oh and just in case you were wondering yes I did have a little helper with this tutorial.