Aha, crafty cross stitchers have found a way around the no needle edict.

Plastic needles. They're light, bendy and just pointy enough to get through the holes in aida (cross stitch fabric) and linen. Add a safety blade in a plastic holder (looks like a disc of plastic with a notch in it, the blade is hidden in the notch) and you've got a sewing kit for planes.

I got jobsworthed at Belfast airport. I was wearing a leather jacket that previously had a hole in a pocket I used to carry 3inch screws in. I mended the hole without realising there was a screw loose in the lining of my jacket (what, only your jacket I hear you say?). I got out of England and into Belfast just fine. Coming out of Belfast en route back to England, they decided the screw that was firmly lodged in the lining of my jacket was a danger to all because I might rip it out and gouge a rude message on the wall or something.... After a good 20 minutes of the guards arguing about it and trying to winkle it out without ripping my jacket, they decided that as the flight was so short, by the time I got it out, I'd be on the ground again.

LTS