If you are going to attempt sewing you are going to need a sewing basket. Trust me. I’ve recently relocated country with two suitcases per family member and had to start from scratch. There is nothing more frustrating than needing to quickly sew something up and not having the tools to do it with. Even more frustrating when it’s a quick mending job and your sewing basket does not contain the item you need to do the mending with.

So much gets done with basic things you don’t think you need but actually do need in your sewing basket. Below, I will list some of the things that no sewing basket should be without.

The first item in the sewing basket should of course be your scissors. A decent pair of sewing scissors that has not touched anything but fabric. Yes! Hide your scissors from the family! Just do it or you will regret it. Someone in the family will ultimately need a pair of scissors and your sewing ones would be at hand and poof! The moment the sewing scissors touch paper it no longer works as well for fabric. So this is one item you probably do not want to keep in your sewing basket but well hidden away somewhere.

The next item in your sewing basket must be a measuring tape. You measure everything. There is almost nothing you don’t measure when you sew. Everything needs room be to precise measurements to fit, whatever you are sewing. For example. If you have to cut fabric to make a pillow case, you need to cut it so the two pieces are the same size to make stitching it easier. This is where you use your measuring tape from the sewing basket.

The next thing a sewing basket absolutely cannot be without are pins. Sewing pins are essential for holding fabric together while you sew. You do this to avoid fabric slipping while sewing, sewing straight and to have the pattern pieces alligned correctly before you do the actual sewing. If your sewing basket does not have a pair of pins you should get them before you start sewing. Just because you need them.

A sewing basket should also never be without hand needles. Hand needles are used for a lot of things. Especially items sewed where a sewing machine cannot reach. There are lots of those, for example a giant pop up pompom made with wool on a cushion. Your sewing machine needle probably can’t reach the pompom so a pair of hands needles would help.

Speaking of needles, a good item to have in your sewing basket should be an extra set of needles for your sewing machine. I often break a needle especially when I’m too lazy to change needles for thicker fabrics or thick layers and the poor needle can’t stitch through it.

A sewing basket also should never be without a pin cushion. Pin cushions can easily be made and is a great help when you are sewing. It’s a quick and easy way to grab a needle or store or again.

A seam ripper is an essential in your sewing basket. What do you do when you have a seam that you stitched wrong by accident and need to unpick? It happens a lot. Especially when you’re tired and trying to push to finish a project late at night. You definitely need at seam ripper to make at success of the sewing basket.

These are the essentials. There are many other things that you can add room the sewing basket. Those are below.

A fabric marker is a marker designed for writing on fabric. It washes off afterwards. But you use it specifically for making pattern markings. I don’t use one of those and my sewing basket does not contain one. I use pins to mark my pattern markings on my fabric although I don’t recommend this until you’ve done lots of sewing. It’s better to have a fabric marker in your sewing basket.

Pinking shears are great for your sewing basket aso they help you cut fabric in a way that frays less. If you don’t have a seager or overlocker you may want to consider putting a pair of Pinking shears in your sewing basket.

There are other fancy things you can put in your sewing basket but they aren’t sewing essentials and I’ve never needed them. And since this blog is about my knowledge I will leave them out. What I have written about here for the sewing basket is what I normally have in my sewing basket. Anything else is optional and luxury items.

© 2019, Sewing Ideas & Swap. All rights reserved.