8 Essential Tools You Need in Your Sewing Kit

Happy New Year! I’m not sure whether you dared make any plans for this year. (Last year put the brakes on a lot of people’s plans.) My goal for this year is to create create create! One thing I love doing is sewing unique clothes for my kids. But another thing I love creating is super helpful tips and fun ideas for my busy readers!

I have been asked before about what types of machines and tools I can’t live without for my sewing projects. There certainly are a few that I love! So how about I share my list of essential sewing tools with you, right here, right now?!?

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning that I get a small commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you.

If you’re a beginner, you may be feeling confused about what is really essential in your sewing kit, what might be nice to have and other things that look nifty but will probably gather dust somewhere. There sure are endless goodies you could hand over your money for. But are those tools really must haves?

Anyone who has already tried sewing will surely have a few favourite tools (and tricks) up their sleeve (get it?!? sewing? sleeves?… 😉) too. But there’s no harm in checking that there isn’t something awesome that you missed, right?

You’ll find this list useful whether you are new to this addiction that is sewing (you just received your first sewing machine for Christmas?!?) or whether you have been dabbling for a while. Naturally, the more you get into sewing, the more you’ll want to expand your kit. Just try not to take out a 2^nd mortgage to afford all the goodies available!

I haven’t included a sewing machine in this list, but I think that goes without saying here! This list of other essential tools will have you sewing immediately!

The Best Helpful Sewing Tools You Can’t Live Without

Scissors- Fabric Scissors, Embroidery Scissors & Paper Scissors

3 pairs of scissors?!? Yes, you read that right.

Number 1 being fabric scissors. No fabric scissors means no cutting any fabric for sewing anything! These scissors are for fabric ONLY. Don’t let any kids or partners dare convince you otherwise! Just Google “fabric scissors memes” and you’ll get what I’m talking about 😉.

Embroidery scissors are much smaller scissors perfect for getting right in close to stitches and clipping excess threads without risking cutting into your project with the larger fabric scissors. Very handy!

Paper scissors will not cut your fabric. They are designed for things like, well, paper. You’ll want some of these handy for cutting out your paper patterns. Or freshly-delivered packages of more sewing supplies 😉

Sandwich Paper (aka the cheap alternative for tracing patterns)

You’ve got a pattern on paper for something you want to sew, but there are several different sizes and it just takes up so much room! You know which size you need to sew. So, what do you do now? Cut your size out of the pattern and then start getting your fabric prepped and ready? No!!

Don’t cut the pattern up! For one, you never know if one day you’ll need a different size and you will have actually trashed the pattern by cutting into it.

What you need to do it trace out the pattern using paper that you can see the pattern through. While you can buy (expensive!) professional pattern paper, my secret tip is to simply use a roll of sandwich (wax) paper.

Unroll, lay over the pattern pieces you want to trace out, and getting drawing! Then using the (paper) scissors, cut out the sandwich paper and use as your pattern. So easy!

Measuring Tools- Measuring Tape & Sewing Ruler

Which one you use at any given time depends on what you want to measure.

A measuring tape is needed when you want to take measurements of a person, like arm length, waist, chest etc. These measurements may be required when deciding what size pattern to create for them. Because it’s a tape and not a solid, inflexible ruler, you can easily wrap it around body parts or extend it for longer measurement.

A plastic ruler on the other hand, is for laying out flat. Obviously, they come in a range of sizes. I love my 60cm long transparent ruler as it is SO useful when measuring out lengths of fabric and for using as a straight line when I need to draw lines before cutting my fabric.

Which brings me to my next must have sewing tool…

Chalk Wheel

There are so many times you need to make marks or cutting lines on your fabric, but you don’t want to use something that will stain or not wash out. There are many types of tailor’s chalks and chalk pencils. Personally, I found them frustrating to use. But not this rolling chalk wheel!

Click on this photo 👇 to see a short clip of the chalk wheel in action!

So fast, so easy, with refill cartridges available and no pencil shavings, I haven’t looked back since buying my first one! The chalk can easily be blown or brushed off once you no longer need the marking and if that isn’t enough, it easily washes off your fabric.

Definitely a sewing tool that is by my side every time I get creative!

Sewing Machine Thread

Yes, there are a gazillion colours available in stores and online. So which ones should you buy? If you aren’t looking to invest fistfuls of money on sewing (yet 😉), then you’ll want to avoid buying dozens of different colours for “just in case”. Start with a couple of basics.

“But which ones?!?” you ask. My top tip? Buy just 2 colours for now: cream and anthracite grey. They’ll keep you covered. Just look at the photos to see how well the colours blend in with the fabrics!

Why those 2? Because they can be used on just about every fabric colour. A lot of people tend to buy white and black, but those colours are too striking.

Cream is a more subtle colour than bright white and matches to most paler-coloured fabrics.

Anthracite is not as bold as plain black and matches to most darker-toned fabrics (including black).

Seam Ripper

Now for the bad news. You WILL make mistakes when sewing. The thread got tangled. You stitched an opening closed. You forgot to sew a zig-zag stitch instead of a straight stitch. And now you need to fix it up.

And now for the good news, in the form of your new sewing best friend: the seam ripper.

A sharp little handheld gadget which can be slipped under those wrong stitches to cut through them so you can try again.

I’ll be honest, having to use this sewing tool is a PITA. But imagine having to correct seams without having this handy tool!

Sewing Machine Needle

And no, I don’t mean just that one and only needle in your machine so you can start sewing. I mean a packet with a couple of spares for when you bend / break / blunt / lose that needle. This too will happen, I’m sorry to say.

Having spare sewing needles will cheer you up when you realise you can rethread your machine and get back to creating, rather than being left sitting with no functioning sewing tools.

You’ll thank me one day 😉.

Magnetic Pin Cushion

Wait! What? How can a pin cushion be magnetic?!?

Well, it’s not actually a cushion in the traditional sense. It’s waaay better!

I love my magnetic pin cushion so much. It is basically a small block that magnetically “holds” your sewing pins on top when you’re not using them. Unlike a real cushion, you don’t need to poke your pins into anything. Just drop them onto the magnetic pin cushion and that’s where you’ll find them when you need go looking.

There is a BONUS advantage to including a magnetic pin cushion in your sewing tools kit. Looks kinda boring though, right? Wrong!

Intrigued to see just it works? Click on the photo below 👇 to see just how awesome this tool is! Nifty, eh?

Because it’s magnetic, it can pick up dropped pins! Picture it: you bump some pins onto your floor. You can’t remember whether it was 3 or 4. Maybe you just can’t reach that last one. Grab the magnetic pin holders and swish it over the floors and any nearby pins will be immediately magnetically attracted, leap upwards and attach themselves to the pin cushion.

I hope that this list of sewing supplies has given you the information you needed to build your own kit of essential sewing tools.

Sewing is supposed to be FUN, not anxiety-inducing. Grab the basics that you need and will actually use. Now go have fun getting creative too!

What do you think? Which tool sounds like you’d need it the most? Did I miss anything? Is there something else you would recommend as being essential for a sewing kit? Drop a comment below!