How to Make a Ball Jar Sewing Kit

My girls love sewing and have been taking classes that just recently ended. For a while I considered signing them up at a local handwork studio but in a more frugal move, and after talking with my girls, we’ve decided to dedicate one evening a week to sewing. When I get home from work my husband will cook dinner and my girls will have “sewing class”.

Since we are classically disorganized around here I thought it would be good if they each had their own sewing kit that they were responsible for and that they would bring to “class” each week. I found this Mending Kit over at Martha Stuart and it fit the bill. Simple to make and we already had (most of) the materials. I will admit that with crafts (and recipes) I usually look over the pictures and jump right in without reading the directions too much and make substitutions along the way. This was the case here. We didn’t have FiberFill, just loose poly fill and we didn’t use poster board, which we probably should have, to help us secure the fabric and make the bottom of the lid look nice.

To start I let the kids pick their fabric from my drawer o’ fabric.  My youngest picked blue and my oldest a patterned Ikea fabric.  We then cut circles 1″ larger than the ring for the inner lid and hot glued them on.

This is another place where I wish I had read the instructions. They suggest layering the fiberfill (we used poly fill), putting the fabric over and pushing it through the lid to hold it in place for hot gluing. I did not do this and instead precariously held the lid and fabric while hot gluing which resulted in a small burn on my thumb. (Quick note: For some reason I get a burn every time I use a hot glue gun despite being extremely careful so I’m not sure, in my case, if following Martha to a t would have helped.)

Once the lid is glued push it through the ring (it’s alredy there if you did it Martha’s way) and then add pins.

Once this is done fill your jar with sewing goodies and screw the lid on. If you have trouble getting the lid on, which we did, trim the excess fabric under the lid and that may help. It also helps to start with lids and rings without dents.

I would love to see your ideas for keeping your kids sewing and crafting supplies organized.