How I fly with my embroidery

Published 3 months ago • 2 min read

How I fly with my embroidery

Flights are my favorite time to embroider, for a couple of reasons.

First, I am pathological about sitting at the window. This has the advantage of having nice, bright light to aid me in my stitching. Second, I rarely pay for wi-fi on planes, so I am blissfully disconnected for a couple of hours (usually). All there is to do is embroider!

I like my creature comforts, and I want to have all of my embroidery supplies with me when I travel. Over the years, I’ve perfected my “tool kit” and can now fit everything in a neat pouch that while not small, is about the size of an iPad.

Thank you for reading Orts! If you enjoy my crafty inspiration, please consider a paid subscription. As a paid subscriber, you’ll receive a two extra emails (1/week), plus quarterly subscriber-only exclusives like a tutorial, pattern, special interview, or something else. (Think of it like Orts Labs.) You'll also receive access to my full archive and paid subscriber-only posts.

This is more streamlined than in the past. Previously, I’ve taken entire thread storage boxes with me. It was a little much, to say the least!

And now, I'm headed on a trip. Here’s everything I bring when traveling with my embroidery.

Two needles; I often lose one on the plane (yikes!).
A needle minder on my stitching to ensure I don't lose it.
Two pairs of TSA-compliant scissors*; again, I am prone to dropping them between seats and never seeing them again. I take scissors that I am OK with losing.
My embroidery floss on a large metal ring—I purposely overestimate how much thread and the number of colors I will need. It's better to be better safe than sorry. (But trust me, I WILL find the nearest craft store in a city and get more floss if needed.)
Washi tape; I use this to tape the extra needle to the pair of scissors. It's also nice to have on hand.

*I've had my scissors taken away from me while I was going through security at Narita Airport in Tokyo. I improvised with a pair of nail clippers I bought at Hudson News.

Everything fits nice and neat into a pouch that my friend Melissa made for me, and I'm ready to fly!

How do you travel with your stitching? Is it less or more than my packing list?