Holiday Mending Tins
One of the things Japan does so well is packaging. I'm reminded of that every time I return home from a visit and spend then next few weeks clearing out hundreds of images of boxes and wrapping.
For awhile now, I've wanted to share the fun of that packaging with you all. During my 2023 trip to Japan, as I was sprinting through the "depa-chika" (department store basement where ALL the good things are) to score a tin of my favorite cookies, I realized those tins were the answer.
My favorite Japanese cookie is Yoku Moku. Not only is it fun to say (try it: yo-ku-mo-ku!), they're delicious. They're not impossible to get in the US (thank you Neiman Marcus), but I always wait to buy them in Japan, because I love the anticipation of finding the box set that's perfect for me, and then having them so carefully and attentively wrapped by the young woman at the counter.
I digress. My thought, back in 2023, was to scrounge up some Yoku Moku tins and kit them out with all the supplies you may need for mending! I've got years of these tins that I use to sort my threads, bits & bobs, scraps, and the like, and the plastic interiors are perfect dividers for hand stitchers. So I started my hunt, and quickly realized that the typical Yoku Moku tins are, while beautiful, a tad boring.
But then I discovered their yearly limited holiday tins! Success! These are adorable. Yes, they are overly Christmas, but in a secular way. Japan treats Christmas as a social holiday (saving their family and religious obligations for New Years). The Yoku Moku tins are all designed in that vein--trees, snow, stars, Santas, elves, gifts. You get the idea.
However, when I found these older tins, the interior dividers were missing. Thankfully, the folks at NextFab (my maker space) showed me how to use the laser, and I designed and cut some plywood to fit both sizes. So once you open the tin, you can construct the dividers and use it the way you would like. The large tin has 9 cubbies; the small one has 6.
Now for the fun part! Kitting it out! I wanted to offer a thoughtful assortment of useful, yet beautiful, tools and supplies for mending and hand-sewing. So the tins include (both sizes) products from
- Cohana (needles, needle threaders, those adorable mini snips, a teeny tiny pin cushion),
- Nona (a sashiko mending kit with pre-printed grids, a bobbin of four naturally dyed threads, and the tape to stick the patch to your jeans),
- embroidery transfer designs,
- cotton stitching thread,
- and of course, some feedsack prints and quilt patches, and then,
- the topper: a collection of antique indigo fabric from the mid 19th century (in various sizes and designs).
I've got some other quilty treats I'll be adding, because that's the way I roll.
Holiday Mending Kits make the perfect gift (for yourself, or a bestie)--and have prolly a year's worth of soothing handstitching inside!