Vintage Sewing Kits

Sewing is good for cold nights indoors, relaxing, and saving money, and allows you to feel productive, creative, and self-reliant. One of my new year's resolutions is to stop bringing little things to the dry cleaner (or to my mom) for mending, hemming, patching, or button replacement. I used to do all of this on my own, before getting "too busy," but with a newly stocked sewing kit full of threads, needles and buttons, getting back in control is possible. Not to mention if you're feeling crafty, it can be the starting point of much bigger projects.

My "kit" is very loosely put together: in an old needlepoint bag that used to hold my grandmother's yarn, I keep
the basics, along with an embroidery kit which I get into when the mood strikes (like most crafting, it is a great relaxing, yet productive, activity.). Here, a few vintage kits found on eBay that might prove inspirational, useful, or both:

Above: Loewe leather sewing kit with silk lining

Coats & Clarks wood sewing kit

Vintage golden frame sewing kit with original box ("new")

Leather travel sewing kit with brass bobbins

Pink Bakelite sewing kit with thimble.

WW II Army sewing kit

Comments (4)

Honestly, as an accomplished seamstress, I would never in a million years get any use out of a vintage sewing kit of any kind. Yes they are cute and vintagey and all that. But I think that getting one is a waste of money if you're intending to use the contents. The scissors in a old kit are dull and the hinge is usually either loose or sticky, the needles not nearly as good as modern equivalents, and the thread is often old and brittle.

Real useful things for a hand-sewing kit.

--Tape measure (retractable are great)
--Straight pins
--Tailor's chalk
--Seam ripper
--Hem gauge
--Needles in various sizes (also called "sharps")
--Thread wax (helps keep thread from knotting)*
--Thread in black, white, beige, blue, and brown.
--Petite scissors for snipping threads
--Standard size scissors for cutting fabric
--Steam iron.
--A dime, a penny, and a nickle for button spacing (held between button and fabric, prevents buttons from being attached too tightly, which stresses the fabric when you button the garment. The heavier the fabric, the thicker the coin)
--Reader's Digest Complete Book of Sewing for various hand sewing techniques. All stiches are not the same and they are EASY to learn. (Get the 1970s version for $3 on ebay. The new edition only has new photos, but the content is the same as the old. Oh, and it's $45)

Those are the basics. If you really want to outfit your sewing kit (more like a case at this point), and assuming you have a sewing machine and you're making housewears or clothing, you could get pressing hams, a point presser (aka "clapper"), a loop turner, a button hole gauge, point turner/creaser, extra zippers and buttons, machine oil, ruffler, etc. Consider a a trunk, too.

*if anyone cares (and I think this is interesting), the reason why a double threaded needle knots is that thread is made from spun fiber. A length of thread twists in one direction. When a length of thread is doubled back on itself, one length twists to the left, while the other half has been reversed and twists to the right. Waxing the threads helps keep them from tangling.

posted by kimg924 on January 6th 2009 at 12:33pm
view kimg924's profile

^ yikes!

as for myself (a decidedly unaccomplished seamstress), i think it's a nice idea. i need one of these for mending.

can anyone recommend sources for non-vintage kits? (preferably not made in china!)

posted by janelle on January 6th 2009 at 2:41pm
view janelle's profile

Janelle, you're best off creating your own. I won't by fabric at JoAnn's Crafts, but they have excellent sewing supplies. There are also lots of online sewing supply retailers.

And by the way, I didn't mean to be insulting about the vintage kits. I just don't believe they are truly useful.

posted by kimg924 on January 6th 2009 at 4:29pm
view kimg924's profile

I'm a seamstress as well, having done hand sewing all my life (I do also machine sew) and wholly endorse kimg's comments!

Janelle you could also try Nancy's Notions (Nancy has a PBS show and has been around for years, her stuff is always good quality): http://www.nancysnotions.com/
Do a search for "mending kit" (there's one on clearance currently), or you can buy supplies as needed.

posted by fraise on January 7th 2009 at 2:38pm
view fraise's profile