Can I Take Crafting Scissors On A Plane?

While boring and uncomfortably long, airplane travel is a fantastic opportunity to work on your cross stitch or other embroidery project. However, one concern may hold you up and it was something that I worried about when I first tried to take my cross stitching project on a trip.

Can I take my crafting scissors on the plane with me? In my carry-on baggage? And work on it while we are in the air?

The answer to all is yes! Well, at least a mini pair of scissors. My scissors are roughly 3″ in length. I wouldn’t try a full-size pair of scissors as I’m pretty sure that will get flagged by security. Let’s also be clear that this is for folks traveling throughout the United States. I have no experience on flying with crafting supplies outside of the U.S.

Here’s the TSA Link on their official website that details that it is okay to bring these smaller scissors. The official size limit is 4″ from the hinge.

Alternatives To Scissors

There are some stylish and effective alternative methods to bringing scissors. Lanyards with a safety thread cutting tool work fantastic and look nice, too!

What About Needles?

If you’re worried about taking needles on the plane, don’t be. I’ve taken needles on a plane numerous time over the past 5 years and haven’t ever been flagged for it.

But if you’re a stickler for the rules, TSA allows sewing needles as well!

**One caveat that TSA mentions: final authority is given to the local TSA agent looking at your belongings. They may decide, despite the regulations, that they don’t want you bringing those scissors on board. That being said, I’ve never had that happen.

What About Knitting Needles?

Yes! These can be also brought on board an airplane!

How To Cross Stitch On An Airplane

My experience with flying has always been that there is a really limited amount of personal space that anyone has no matter where your seat is located.

You need to think ahead and plan on how you’d actually go about stitching. Smaller projects will work better, and projects that utilize fewer floss colors are easier as well.

For example, when I’m flying I usually like to bring along a project like a Ronnie Rowe pattern. These patterns only require one color floss – Black/310. That makes it so much easier to keep re-threading my needle with the same color and it’s also less bobbins to keep organized.

Also think ahead about if you’ll need any special glasses. While reading glasses are easy enough to use, special magnifiers may be a bit unwieldy. On the other hand, special magnifiers may help with another issue: lighting.

Lighting may be in poor supply, especially if the flight is at night. That tiny little spotlight above your head doesn’t provide that much light at all. The magnifiers that I use has a tiny little focused LED light that does help.

In the end you may need to balance the potential extra strain on your head against the convenience of being able to see better.

I do try and use the fold-down tray to keep my floss and scissors organized. The worst thing that you could do would be to drop these materials and be unable to locate them on the floor around your seat.

If you’re like me and you get cold easily on a plane, consider just wearing an over-shirt with a breast pocket. You can keep your supplies in there a bit easier and not necessarily need the tray.

What If You Forget Your Scissors?

We’ve all been there. I know, at least once in the past, I’ve forgotten to bring scissors on a trip with me. Sometimes it happens on a car trip, but it has happened on a plane trip as well. What do you do when this happens?

Just go to one of the local shops that sell various necessities like cold medicine. They usually will also carry a small pair of nail trimmers. That will work just fine and now you have a backup pair of “scissors” that you can always leave in your travel bag for the future!

Conclusion

One good thing about being confined to a small space for hours at a time is that its easy enough to get quite a bit of cross stitching done during this time. If you have a trip coming up, consider taking along a cross stitch project that needs some attention.