Sewing and Business Travel

Most of you don't know that I travel part or all of every week most months of the year.  While I travel some during January and February, I travel through out the U.S. and Canada every week from March through November.  While most travel days are 10 hour days, about 5 times a year I get evenings free in the same hotel (hard to get much done on the weeks where you change hotel rooms every night) or a free weekend.  I try to pack a sewing project every week which is usually the hand sewing needed for a project, tracing a pattern or a hand embroidery project.  For those 5 times a year, I bring a sewing machine with me.

This week is the first of the sewing trips this year.

This is one of my carry-on bags:

And it holds my sewing machine.  This is my travel Brother machine that is also an embroidery machine so has a more powerful motor.  And it also has my favorite feature, the thread cutting button. I try to protect the  bobbin winder and thread intake on the top with foam and batting.  While I don't have to take it out for TSA screening, most of the screeners have never seen one go through the airport except for my regular TSA people in Fresno.

I made this padded bag for notions so scissors and pins won't stick through my luggage.  These are the notions I brought with me for this trip.

And these are the projects I plan to work on this week when I get time.  I cut the fabric at home and run through every notion I need for that project and put them all together in a zip lock bag.

The sewing notions and fabric all go in to my checked luggage.  Can't forget the most important part of the sewing supplies - the foot pedal, sewing feet, bobbins and power cord.

The reason I have all this room in my checked luggage for sewing supplies is that I build my travel wardrobe around black. I wear a pair of black pants and shoes to travel and pack another pair of black pants and shoes.  All my tops coordinate with black pants and I try to wear each top at least twice on a trip.

Hope all the free time I anticipate happens for sewing and I have something to post in a few days.