Frilly Hedgehog Pincushion - Tutorial

Some corsage pins I ordered arrived, but they came in a flimsy ziplock bag.  For safety reasons, ahem, I had to make a new pincushion... with ruffles. 

I had previously sewed some swatches of fabric and backed them with cotton batting for another project, but it didn't work out so I had this quilted material just lying around in my scrap bin.  This little project was a good opportunity to use up this fabric.

If you want to make something similar, this is how I made this:

Materials

Fabric

Cotton batting

Polyfil Stuffing

Thread

Needle

Sewing machine + hand sewing

Lots of double sided ribbon (Each row is about three times around the pouf)

Peanut butter jar lid (or other similar lid)

Other lid about 2-3 times as big as the peanut butter jar lid

Instructions (Sorry!  No photo steps in this tutorial!)

(Note: this assumes that the fabric is already backed with batting.)

Preparation

1. Cut one circle about 1 inch bigger all around than the peanut butter jar lid

2. Cut strip of fabric long enough to wrap around the outside of the lid plus about 1 inch all around

3. Cut large circle about 2-3 times the size of the base (bigger circle makes bigger mushroom top)

4. Cut 3 strips of ribbon that are long enough to wrap at least three times around the outside of the dome.  These are for 3 layers of ruffles.

Dome Top

5. Create running stitch around the entire perimeter of the dome top circle.  Pull to create a draw string that closes the circle into a pouch.  Stuff pouch very full with stuffing.  Pull string tight and secure in place (knots).  You should have a puffy ball.

Base

6. With sewing machine, carefully sew the long strip of fabric around the base circle (wrong sides facing out, right sides facing each other.  When you turn it the right side out, you should have a cup that the peanut butter lid can fit into.

7. Sew running stitch around top perimeter of the cup and pull tight so that the edges pull in to the middle.  Stuff full with batting or fabric scraps.  Secure thread in place (knots).

Ruffles

8. Sew (hand-stitch) the end of one strip of ribbon to the side of the dome top.  

9. Create two stitches of a very loose running stitch.  

10. Push ribbon down the thread to create first ruffle.  

11. Sew ruffle down to side of dome. 

12.  Keep creating ruffles and sewing them down around the entire side of the dome until a full circle is created.  Adjust how tight you want your ruffles as you go and keep an eye on how much ribbon you have left to ensure that you have enough to go around the entire circle.

13. Create two more circles of ruffles.  You should have one ruffle about half way down the side of the dome, one at the bottom edge of the dome, and one ruffle layer in between those.

Put it All Together

14. Center the base in the middle of the bottom of the dome.

15. Use a ladder stitch to join the top and bottom (hand-stitched).  I sewed the bottom to the last ruffle layer as that was easiest.

16. You are done!  Enjoy your new ruffly pincushion! 

I had a lot of scrap fabric and fleece so I stuffed my pincushion with that instead.  The downside is that scrap fabric is very dense and harder to stick thicker needles (ex. corsage pins) easily into.  You may wish to use batting in the top and fabric scraps only in the base so that you can more easily push needles in.  Smaller pins and needles will have no problem pushing into fabric scrap.

Have a great week!

PDF Pear Pincushion Tutorial Giveaway

I made a few alterations to the pear pincushion template so I  tested it out. This time, I went with some bright reds and yellows. 

As you can maybe see, the lower section of the pear is now a tad bit smoother.

The main difference, is how bunchy the base is.  I noticed that the base of the original pear was kind of pleated at the bottom, so I figured it was too much fabric. 

 I narrowed a base a little and the end result is much smoother and neat.  Yes! 

I also tested out how I could use regular cotton fabric to make the stem and leaves.  You basically have to thicken it with batting in order to make them the thickness similar to when I used fleece and corduroy for the first pear.  I think it looks pretty good this way! 

The leaf vein stitching shows up really well, and makes a nice indentation in the batting.  Hooray!

Do you like the pear pincushion?  Want to try making one of your own?  Then leave a comment on this post and be entered into a draw to win a pear pincushion pattern of your own!  Do you like the leaf better with fleece or cotton fabric?  Which stem is better?  What's your favourite pincushion shape?

Don't forget to leave a way for me to contact you!

Happy Sewing!

UPDATE:  The contest is now over, but you can purchase the PDF Pear Pincushion tutorial here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/103372472/pdf-pear-pincushion-ornament-toy?ref=shop_home_feat_2

Log Cabin Patchwork Pincushion Success

After gazing longingly every day at lovely log cabin patchwork pincushions and other marvelous patchworking, I came home to a most wonderful discovery - my fabric order from FabricFlair had arrived!
It was filled with many pretty fabrics. I ooh'd and ahh'd, and then I picked out my favourite pieces and sat down for some sewing.

I had to refer to a YouTube video on how to sew a log cabin quilt, and I referred to a tutorial on Purl Bee blog for some idea on what size to cut the strips. They recommended 3/4 of an inch wide strips, and that worked out well for me. (The resulting pincushion will be approximately 2 x 2 inches, so make the strips wider or add more rounds if you want a larger pincushion.)

Here are all my pieces cut to size and laid out the way I want them. This was really fun.

I only have a little piece of the strawberry fabric, but I knew that I wanted it to be part of my new pincushion. Then I chose a pink bird... because it's cute :) Then came some edges of yellow butterflies.

I was going in pastel rainbow colours so green foilage came next. I meant for blue and green florals after that, but the center of the flower ended up looking more like a blackberry, which I like even better! Everyone knows that strawberries and blackberries make very good pies... mmm!

And then came pink stripes because I'm feeling kind of girly lately and that calls for pink!

I've been saving a piece of really neat designed fabric for something special, and the back of the pincushion seemed to be a perfect spot. I chose a portion of the design that happened to have some red and pink in it... and a little black-eyed bird!

Ah yes, success is sweet. I adore my new pincushion and, guess what? I'm going to make MORE! Let me know if you want one too!

As I was making this, it occurred to me that this would make a darling pillow for a doll. Would you agree?

Have a merry day!