I’ve been filling my Hussif (travel sewing kit) with lots of useful things (needles, folding scissors, pins, tape), but I realised I didn’t have a thread catcher! I find a thread catcher to be an essential part of tidy sewing, but I needed to find a design that was collapsible… Happily after a bit of searching I found just the right pattern.
1. The fabric
I wanted my thread catcher to match my Hussif, and luckily I had some of the purple linen left. I didn’t have any of the lining fabric left but I found an off-white cotton which was similar.
2. The pattern
I found the pattern for this thread catcher on a quilting website, and it’s a genius design:
http://quiltingdigest.com/pack-and-go-with-this-diy-collapsible-thread-catcher/
I made some small changes to it. Because I wanted my thread catcher to collapse to be quite thin, instead of using a pringles packet I used some old nylon guitar strings (recently restrung guitar) which I circled around 3 times then taped together with masking tape. I also made it a bit smaller (2.5″ diameter) so it would fit in my sewing kit pocket. I also wanted the inside to be a different fabric to the outside, so I sewed two different fabrics together to create the main fabric piece. Here is a picture of all the pieces used to make the thread catcher:
The challenges
This pattern came together quite well. It involved quite a lot of hand sewing, which I really enjoyed. The last bit of sewing the base in was a little fiddly because I needed to gather it (not something I’ve done by hand before) but it went together fine.
The final result
I’m delighted with this thread catcher. It collapses really easily and looks really pretty when collapsed. It fits in my sewing kit, and when I need it I can open it out and it sits nice and sturdy on the table, ready to collect thread!
The sewing resolution 