A friend of ours moved to the Chicago area to go to college. So I put together a sewing kit with needles, pins, safety pins, scissors, threads, measuring tape, etc. Her mom didn't sew and hadn't even thought about it. She said she was one of the very few girls in the dorm that had one so others were forever borrowing it. After she graduated, she went into missionary work and she said she takes it with her everywhere.
I used my mother's items so I would have loved one of my own when I was 9 years old. When I had to take home-ec there was a kit you had to buy, my mom thought it was silly since she had bought 2 kits before (for my 2 older sisters and they took them off to college) but the quality of the items weren't that great and most girls were never going to use it again. She said she would have preferred items separately and get only what people need.