American Heritage Girls is proud to support Samaritan’s Purse and Operation Christmas Child in bringing the good news of Christ to children all over the world.
In order to complete the Textile Arts merit badge, my daughter organized a service project, for her unit, to make sewing kits to include in our troop’s OCC boxes. 
- empty clean medicine bottles
- scissors
- paint chips
- scraps of felt
- drinking straws
- thread in assorted colors
- buttons
- safety pins
- one yard of fabric for each kit
- 1 gallon ziploc bags
- sewing needles
- adhesive labels
- this PDF file
To create a case for the sewing needles, we used paint chips from the local hardware store in an assortment of colors. A small piece of felt was stapled to the inside to hold the needles. The size will depend on the size of your bottles.
The most time consuming part of the project was creating the bobbins of thread. We began by cutting drinking straws into 2 inch pieces. Then a small notch was cut in one end. Wrap the thread around the straw and secure the end in the notch, so it will not come undone. The more thread the better. Each kit contained several bobbins of thread.
Next she created a label for the bottles. It is in English, so the OCC distribution center will realize that this in not medicine. It also contains a picture of a spool of thread to help the girl receiving the box realize what is in the container. Each label was printed on a 1×4 label and attached to the bottle. To use this label, click on the image below to download a pdf file that can be printed.
Now to assemble the sewing kit. Each kit began with one yard of fabric folded neatly and placed in a gallon ziploc bag. Into the labeled bottle we placed sewing needles, thread, buttons and safety pins. The bottle was then placed in the bag with the fabric.
To learn more about Samaritan’s Purse and Operation Christmas Child visit their website here.
