A set of thread, needles, and various sewing bits and pieces.

A friend recently asked me to order him one of these little kits from AliExpress.
Why not help him out, I thought, and clicked the Buy button.
Read on to see what actually arrived.

This won’t be a big review, and I won’t be doing any embroidery either. I’ll just tell you a little about what this kit is.
So, a mini-review and first impressions.

The package arrived surprisingly quickly—in 18 days. I wasn’t expecting that, especially with the pre-New Year shipping delays.
The seller had also packed it pretty well, wrapping it in several layers. Given what the box is made of, that was a good idea.


The little box looks quite neat. But I’m afraid that’s where the good news ends :(


As I rummaged through the box, I found all sorts of little things.
The needles were in a plastic case, but its lid had come open, so they were all scattered around the main box.
The top section is removable.


I dug out everything I could find—or so I thought at the time. :)


The complete kit.
The seller said it should include:
3x buttons (actually 3 regular buttons: 2 small and 1 large)
1 x thimble
1 box of needles (10 pcs.)—I only found 8 (4 small, 3 medium, and 1 large)
1 x needle threader
1 x Scissor (I assumed this meant a seam ripper), but someone pointed out that it’s scissors.
2x snaps (2 sets)
1x tape measure (a tailor’s measuring tape)
1x Earpick (I still have no idea what this is)—apparently a tool for cleaning your ears. I’m baffled :)
3x fasteners (I think these are 2 safety pins)
1 X Hook
For some reason, the seller didn’t list the thread: 16 colors.


The thread looks quite nice, and there are 16 different colors.
But they wound it like they were stealing it :(((
The spool cores are made of cardboard.
The inserts holding the thread in the box are removable.
My wife looked at this pile of colors and said that 2–3 colors are enough for quick clothing repairs: black, white, and some kind of beige (not sure about that one).


A little about the box itself: it’s made of hard, transparent plastic.
That’s why the seller took such care with the packaging—this kind of plastic breaks easily.
There’s a latch at the front, but it barely latches at all. You can push it down, but it doesn’t catch. Give it the slightest nudge and the box opens.


Since the box is made of plastic, the top and bottom halves are separate. They’re joined by little hinge loops, rather than being molded as one piece from soft polyethylene. Not bad in principle, though we’ll see how long it lasts.


The needles—I can’t say much about them. They’re just needles, except for the large one.
By the way, there’s a weird thing on the left that looks like a tiiiiny spoon. I’d love to know what it is and what it’s for. Maybe someone can tell me?


A tailor's measuring tape. It would be fine, except it doesn't start at zero—why would they cut it like that?
And don't get me started on the fact that I'm used to these tapes being 150 cm long, not 100.


And here's the big needle. Apparently it saw a lot of use, because it's clearly not broken—it's just blunt as a brick :)


All in all, honestly, this is a pretty lousy set. Even the low price doesn't make up for it—it's still too expensive.

The only real pluses are the reasonably neat little box and the fact that everything comes together, so there's nothing to hunt down or buy separately. Thread, needles, and so on.

The downsides:
They included fewer needles, but the worst part is that there's only one big needle, and it's blunt :(
The thimble is plastic; I think a sharp needle could actually pierce it.
The measuring tape has a bad cut.
They were clearly stingy with the thread. They could have wound on at least 2–3 times as much.

My verdict: if anyone asks me to buy this set again, I'll try to talk them out of it.

Thanks for reading. I hope this review was useful, even if brief.