Are you heading off on holiday and looking for the perfect travel craft to keep you entertained on your flight or by the pool? Or maybe you’re after something screen-free to occupy your hands and your mind when you’re commuting to work. Whatever your reason is for being on the move, embroidery might just be the ideal portable craft option for you.

The great thing about embroidery in general is that it can be quite a compact craft at the best of times. Unless you’re working on a particularly giant hoop or a tapestry of some sort, chances are that your project will be relatively small and hand held! This naturally makes it easier to transport. You do, however, need a little more than just your hoop with you when sewing on-the-go, so we’ve put together our list of essential items to pack in your embroidery travel kit. 

Needle minder

The last thing you want when you’re sewing away from home is to accidentally lose your needle! You could just weave your needle through your fabric to keep it in one place, but there’s always a risk that it could get caught and ruin your work. Our needle minders are magnetic, so they’ll keep your needle nice and safe without any chance of snagging or tearing your fabric. 

Spare needles

That being said, sometimes needles do end up getting lost despite your best efforts! Your safest bet here will be to keep a couple of spares in your travel kit as a back up. This will be especially useful if you’re travelling far and have no idea if you’ll have access to a shop that will sell sewing supplies. You could even treat yourself to a pack of self-threading needles, to take the threading pressure off!

Needle threader

If threading a needle isn’t your strong point at the best of times, then it probably isn’t going to be much better on a train or a plane… But fear not! A needle threader, or even a self-threading needle, will be your travel best friend when it comes to getting your needle loaded up ready for stitching. No need for an extra steady hand when you’ve got one of these packed in your embroidery travel kit. 

Thread selection

If you’re only out on a short trip and working on one specific section, you could choose to bring just those particular threads with you. That way you know you won’t accidentally lose any of the others and put your future progress on hold. My favourite way to do this is by winding my thread onto card bobbins, then clipping them onto a keyring. If you’re on a longer trip, you’ll probably want to bring all the threads for your piece with you so that you can complete the whole embroidery while you’re away - if you have time between dips in the pool and the all-inclusive buffet, that is!

Thread wax

When you’re sewing on-the-go, you might be in a smaller space or a different position to your norm. This could lead to more chances of threads getting tangled up when you stitch. Thread wax will be your saving grace here. Our pots are a great travel size and make it super easy to condition your threads while you travel. 

Mini snips

At some point as you progress with your piece, you’re going to need to trim your thread. And for that you need scissors! You might get away with just grabbing the kitchen scissors when you’re at home but, chances are, you don’t want to be carrying them around with you while you travel. Airport security will certainly have something to say about them! Luckily for you, we stock the ultimate travel scissors - these unbelievably cute Seki mini snips. With blades that measure just 8mm (the whole thing is only 35mm!) they’re suitable for taking in your hand luggage when flying. 

If you don’t need your snips to be plane-friendly and prefer something slightly bigger, we also have a range of lovely sewing scissors. They feature the classic stork design as well as other sweet animals and are a great size to work with. 

Tiny embroidery kit

Ok, this isn’t an essential for your travel bag - you can of course take any size work you want! But, our mini kits and keyring embroidery kits are absolutely ideal for a bit of travel sewing. They’ll hardly take up any space in your bag, meaning you should never have to choose between embroidery and anything else you need when you’re packing!

Embroidery pattern instructions

If you’re sewing from a kit, don’t forget to pop your instructions in, too! You could take a photo on your phone for extra back up, but I always like to keep things screen-free as much as possible when I’m sewing. Holidays are always a great time to have a bit of a digital detox, too, which makes the analog pattern even more essential. 

Travel Craft bag

Once you’ve got all your supplies together, you’re going to need somewhere to put them! You could just pop everything together in a simple drawstring bag or zip up pouch, or you could keep things even more organised and get yourself something with pockets and sections for each different tool. 

You can even add embellishments to your craft bags! I collected these patches from various Craft for Cats events (and this cat embroidery kit was done for one of their craftalongs, too!).

Your hoop!

This one probably goes without saying but… don’t forget to put the actual work in!!

We hope this little list has been helpful for your travel preparations! Let me know if there’s anything else you’d add in the comments and, most importantly, have a great time away!