UPDATE: Download the free pattern to make your own sewing kit.

Even though I don’t sew, or perhaps because of it, I really love this project. It’s a sewing kit that you can throw in your handbag or desk drawer, perfect for those embarrassing popped-button and/or ripped hem mishaps.

This project was inspired by Phizzychick’s marvelous Matchbook Trees. When I saw what she had done with the “accordion fold,” I just knew there was some sort of “kit” hidden in the process.

Given I never have thread, needles, or safety pins when I need them (or rather, “where I can find them”), a sewing kit seemed like the ideal project.

Within the next couple of days, I’ll be uploading the pattern (free for everyone to download) and a tutorial — stay tuned!

Here’s the exterior front. And no one is more surprised than me that this really does stay closed just like a regular matchbook — nothing is holding it together other than the lid tucked in the bottom panel:

This is the first panel you see when opening the matchbook:

Stretched out, the different “panels” include: two colors of thread, safety pins, a needle threader, a cutting utensil, and needles. I wasn’t 100% satisfied with the safety pins set-up of this one and I think the new and improved method I’ll have in the tutorial (coming soon) is more effective for keeping the pins in place:

Flipped over, the back panels include: two rulers (one on each edge with one imperial measurements and the other metric) and several handy measurement tables:

Here are the three “flapped” sections (threader, cutter, needles). I felt these three sections needed to be under “flaps” either for their own protection (the fragile wire of the needle threader) or the protection of the carrier (sharp, pointy things!):

Closeup of the needle threader:

Closeup of the cutting tool. For practical purposes, I felt it was important to have some sort of cutting tool. And this bit nearly stumped me. Everything I considered was either unsafe, likely to get airport travelers a private conversation with Homeland Security, or too bulky.

I finally hit on using a portion of the “tearing edge” from a box of wax paper. lol How well does it work at cutting thread? Not as good as scissors, but better than incisors.

And the needles. Which have their sharp ends stuck in a small piece of styrofoam glued to the inside of the matchbook cover:

And finally, the back:

UPDATED: Here’s the styrofoam inserted in the base.

And here’s a closeup of how the safety pins are attached.