First, I want to thank everyone for all the shop love. I truly appreciate all the kind words, support and the orders! Talk about a nice little lift in confidence, which I dare say, was lacking in the past.

Now on to pincushions. A few people have asked how I made these, so why not do yet another tutorial? They’ve been on my mind a lot since I made them. These are fairly easy, take about an hour, and it’s a great way to use up little scrap pieces. I am really loving the mixing of different fabrics.

You’ll need: paper, pencil, 6 pieces of coordinating fabric, 6×6 inch backing fabric, sewing machine, iron, fiberfill, embroidery thread and needle, and buttons.

A. To make the pattern, simply trace a circle (plate, lid) onto a piece of paper. The diameter should measure 4-6 inches, depending on how big you want your pincushion.

B. Cut the circle out and fold into 6 equal wedges. This is an important step, so refold until you have equal pieces. Now, cut out one of the wedges and that will be your pattern piece.

C. Using your pattern piece, cut out 6 pieces of fabric. Iron and arrange.

D. Sew two wedges together, right sides facing together, with a 1/8-1/4 inch seam allowance. I use 1/8 inch seam allowance for this. Whatever you use, be consistent when sewing all the wedges together.

E. Press seams open before (F) sewing on the next wedge. Sew on the third wedge making a half circle. Again, press all seams open.

G. Repeat with remaining 3 wedges. This will give you two half circles. With right side facing together, sew the two halves together down the straight side. Open and you now have a pretty patchwork circle. Don’t worry if the center points don’t meet up. That’s what the button is for (covering that part up).

H. After pressing all seams open/flat, use your finished circle to trace onto your backing fabric. I used felt for this, but any fabric will do.

I. With right side facing together, sew the two circles together by sewing all around the edge using a 5/8 inch seam allowance. Leave a 2 inch gap for stuffing. Trim with pinking shears (optional).

J. Turn right side out ( wouldn’t this make a pretty coaster?).

K. Start stuffing with fiberfill until you reach the desired plumpness. Slip stitch the open gap closed with regular thread and needle.

You can take it a step further and sew an embroidered chain stitch all around the perimeter of the cushion along the seam or move onto the next step, which is making the “petals” so to speak. There is a great tutorial on Whip Up on exactly how to do this HERE. You would do the same thing for this pincushion using the wedge seams as your guide.

And finally for the center, sew on your favorite button(s), bead or add a small object and your are all done!!

Any questions? Leave them in the comments or send me an email (it’s on my sidebar).

Have a lovely weekend!!

This entry was posted on Friday, November 16th, 2007 at 10:39 pm and is filed under tutorials, how to, Sewing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.