My Day on the Pincushion Hop With a Tutorial and a Giveaway

First, let me just say that I love, love, love pincushions!  There must be ten hanging around my sewing room.  Magnetic pincushions (which aren’t much to look at but get the job done), pincushions that look like chairs, teapots and Christmas trees as well as a much beloved lady pincushion who was beheaded by my dog when he was a puppy.  Some day I will remember to buy a new wooden ball for her head!  So, when the fabulous Madam Samm announced a pincushion blog hop cheered by the lovely Kristen, I was in!  (By the way, standing ovation thanks to these ladies for pulling everything together!)

I had a ton of ideas for this one but finally settled on a wrist pincushion.  Back in my dressmaking days, I loved my little red plastic bracelet pincushion so I set off to make a new one with a bit more style.  Even I have to admit that my old one was, well, ugly but very useful. 

So, in more pictures than words, here’s what I did…

The first thing was to cut a circle and stay-stitch the edges a quarter inch from the sides.

Then, I pressed along the stitching.

Zig-zagged over some narrow cotton yard (after breaking the first basting threads.)

Added a fistful of polyfil.

And pulled like crazy on the red yarn!  (A word of advice, don’t pull as hard as I did…I broke the yarn!)  Now, I had the center of my pin cushion and it needed…petals!

3.5″ strips made a great height for petals.  I roughly cut the shape on two petals, sewed them right sides together and then turned and pressed them.  I made a total of eight but it’s up to you…I even thought it would be fun to make two colors.

For depth, I folded a pleat in each petal and stitched the pleat in place.  I chain-pieced them thinking I could just wrap them around the poof but ended up having to cut them apart.

Fuss, pin,fuss, pin, repeat until you like how your flower is looking. Then use a double-threaded needled to stitch your petals to the center.  (A step I’d like to have skipped was the “go to post the photos and find out your phone deleted five photos”….sigh!)

Make a wrist band by cutting a 4″ strip of fabric and a 1.5″ strip of batting a comfortable size for your wrist with a little extra to overlap.  Fold down 1/4″ on all sides of the rectangle.  Center the batting in the rectangle and fold it closed.  Top-stitch around all sides and down the middle.  Add velcro closures (one on top side, one on the bottom – be sure to try on for size.)  I doubled the amount of velcro on the “catching” side so that the band was adjustable.  Handstitch the flower to the wristband and, voila…a wrist corsage pin cushion!

Here it is on my wrist.

If I make another one, I might try for a smaller starting circle (mine was about six inches across) and a narrower wrist band but I love my little pincushion and hope you do, too!

As for the giveaway, here are a pair of fat quarters to get you started on your own wrist pincushion or perhaps some Christmas sewing.  Personally, I never have too many reds or greens, do you?  I’ll be heading out of town on the 18th so I’ll wait until my return to draw a winner on October 3rd.  In the meantime, watch out for lots of photos from Ireland and Scotland.  Once again, I’m off adventuring with my mom and sister.  So, if you’d like to be entered, leave me a comment telling me about a trip you loved or one you would love to take.  And be sure to hop over and see these wonderful people who are also posting today!

September 17

Life in the Scrapatch

Why-Knot-Kwilt

Amy Made That…by eamylove

Michelle’s Romantic Tangle

Quiltscapes

Kwilty Pleasures

Words and Stitches

Val’s Quilting Studio

Les Quilts

Sew Peace to Peace

Bumbleberry Stitches

Susie’s Sunroom

Quilts From My Crayon Box

Quarter Incher

I Like to QuiltBlog

Just Quilt It

Sew We Quilt