Christmas is on its way and it is time to start thinking about what presents to get your loved ones, if you haven't started your shopping already that is. If you have a budding dressmaker in the family it might be a nice idea to create a filled sewing box full of Haberdashery essentials to get them started on their new hobby. Alternatively, if you have someone in the family who sews already, it may be nice to update their sewing box with some new bits and bobs. If you have a young person in the family who wants to begin dressmaking you will need to start them from scratch and the best place to begin is to buy a sewing box to house their Haberdashery. These come in a large variety of designs nowadays and all different sizes suitable for people's different tastes. Once you have filled your box, tie this up with a festive ribbon and you have got yourself a personal and thoughtful gift for someone for Christmas. A must have Haberdashery item to start with is a pair of scissors which can be used for cutting fabric and cutting threads. If your dressmaker to be is looking to do a lot of sewing in the future it is worth investing in a good pair of scissors and the ones we always suggest to people at Calico Laine are the 25cm fiskars dressmakers scissors. These are the scissors we use on a daily basis for cutting all of our material and they are great quality; which if looked after well will last for years. It may also be useful to get a small pair of embroidery scissors for snipping excess threads or getting into tiny corners. To start dressmaking, they are of course going to need some sewing needles for both hand sewing and machine sewing. To begin with, I would suggest buying an assorted pack of needles which can be used for a number of different projects and later on they can buy some more specialised needles when they have specific project in mind. The best quality needles are our Millward range however if you are looking for a budget set, JTL needles are also a good brand. Another essential Haberdashery item, especially for the beginner, is a quick un pick as there are sure to be a lot of mistakes when they are first learning to sew. This will allow them to undo any mistakes and give it another go. These come in a variety of colours and two sizes, small and large. It is also a good idea to have a set of pins in a sewing kit to make it easier to sew. Trying to sew without pins can make it very difficult as the fabric will move around as you pass it through the sewing machine or even if you try to hand stitch. For a beginners sewing box, I would suggest buying the glass headed pins as it is easier to see the pins when you are sewing. And of course, it is going to be no good having these Haberdashery essentials without having some thread to sew with! Threads come in a huge range of colours so it is probably best to start with just the basics. You may want to fill the sewing box with a black, white, grey, navy and red to begin with and these can always be added to later. Other Haberdashery items that can be included in the sewing box are needle threaders, a tape measure, safety pins and tailors chalk. Along the years the sewing box can be expanded with different items but these essentials will be a great start.