Rolled Sewing Kits

Made from the instructions in Fanciful Utility, which continues to provide fun and beautiful uses for all the odd ends from my larger projects. These two kits are bound for Fort Nisqually--one for interpretation, the other available through the Foundation's fundraising auction. [Details forthcoming; see Anna Worden Bauersmith's Etsy store to buy your own patterns.] 

The kit on the left has a three wool needle pages, a central 3.5" x 1.5" box (~1.75" tall) for holding thimbles, pincushions, and other tools, and a 3.5" x 2.5" pocket for thinner items like scissors, wax, and thread winders. I've equipped it with 12 pins, 6 needles, 1 disk of wax, an emery strawberry, and a round pincushion. The latter two are made up from designs in the American Girl's Book; Or, Occupations for Play Hours (1854/1831), though I took the liberty of using cotton instead of silk on the exterior. My own silk pincushion works fine after years of use, but started looking worn much more quickly than the cotton print ones I made before and since.

The pink box has a built-in pincushion, shaped scissor pocket, and a multi-purpose 2" x 2.5" box with a lid. The pocket can hold scissors up to 4" in length, while the box has room for a modern thread spool or two, or a variety of other tools--in the picture above, it has an emery strawberry, wax disk, two spools of silk, three thread winders, and thimble. This box is also starting out equipped 12 pins, 6 needles, 1 disk of wax, and an emery strawberry.

Sewing supplies are all ready to go.

All of the box fabrics are reproduction cotton prints, the ties are satin ribbons (the orange cotton, the green silk). The needle pages are wool, as is the stuffing of the pincushions. The strawberries have cotton covers with hand-embroidered spots, wool tops, and emery sand centers. Except for two internal seams, the boxes are entirely hand-stitched, clocking in at 4:15 each.