I have a sewing kits, which is just a bunch of needles I bought and a few spools of thread. I also carry a few in my EDC, a few needles weigh nothing and take up no room. The thread is on a plastic sewing machine spool.

The needles could have a few uses besides sewing, but keeping the insulation from falling out of something for a while is a good enough reason to carry a needle and thread for me.

I also plan on adding soon a sailing palm and sailmakers needles, which can handle some fairly heavy sewing. For example,. it mght be useful should I want to repair a tarp or try to make one tarp out of two tarps, or whatever. See:

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/sto...;classNum=10900

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/sto...;classNum=10900

With a ten dollar spool of waxed twine, you could sew togehter some fairly heavy pieces.