Sewing is a must have, must know-how, must do whether its pre- or post-SHTF. Learn and practice now while you have the materials and supplies on hand. A few years back, I had some bricks of beeswax and a metal super-mini muffin baking tray to melt down that wax for small sewing aids to wax the thread or cords that I’m working with. (I still have a brick and probably a life-time supply of the small ones) The wax helps the fibers of the thread/cord to last longer and it’s small enough to fit in a sewing kit. An alternative to the metal tray could be a silicone candy-making tray. Also, add a small needle-nose plier to your kit for pulling a needle through a difficult material such as heavy or multiple-layered cloth or leather. Thimbles will give good protection to your fingertips. I’m not a fan of the full metal caps for handwork that I have to put some force behind as they tend to slip; I prefer the Clover leather coin thimble. I’m not too keen on using a thick piece of leather in place of a thimble as I’ve had the eye-end of the needle go through it under strong pressure… scary! Have items in your sewing kit to keep your pins and needles sharp and your scissors sharp. You could get by with a folded up piece of aluminum foil to cut on with your scissors, but in post-SHTF it might be whittled down to aluminum dust. Have a pin cushion with an attached emery sand bobble to sharpen the pins and needles. I use a very compact Sewsharp scissor sharpener by Fiskars; it’s like holding a large coin in my hand, very convenient! Don’t forget to load up on a stash of heavier thread like “button and carpet”, “upholstery” or such like that. I found heavy thread used in model ship building at a hobby store. After figuring out it was cheaper and stronger than the heavy thread at my usual fabric store, I cleaned out that sale bin and those spools are really compact. It will become good as gold when you’ve discovered an inconvenient tear in your tarp, tent, bedroll, heavy coat, etc. after SHTF. These are just a few suggestions that I hope will help with your sewing preps.
