More pin cushions

If you haven't seen my post about pin cushions yet... here it is.

Didn't I say they were easy to do? So easy I was able to whip up another one.

Same style, different color. I'm not really too happy with it.

See, I had this idea to make a "Honey Pot" pin cushion from the same empty Gerber bottle. I had something like this in mind:

the top part can be the pin cushion part

But I can't figure out the how-to's yet... and I really needed another pin cushion so... maybe next time.

Anyway, that other pin cushion that looks like a little pillow... nothing special really but instead of polyester stuffing, I used crushed candle wax. I remember when I was in gradeschool... we would always have projects like this. Pincushions stuffed with crushed candle wax because according to our Home Economics teacher, candle wax is good for needles (??? I forget why ???). I don't remember how we crushed candle wax before... it seemed pretty easy then. But when I tried to crush candles a few weeks ago for this project... it was hard! I ended up ruining a cheese grater because I used it to just grate my candles.

Ok, on to the next projects!

Flower Pot Pin Cushion

After browsing through a few more craft blogs yesterday, I started asking myself...

"How come everyone in blog world seems to have a cute pin cushion except me???"

Seriously. After all the pretty pin cushions I've seen yesterday, I'm ashamed to show you what I've been using. Let's just say it's so "old school" but it came free with a pack of threads I bought last year. So as I was leaving the office last night, I decided to try my hand at making a pin cushion.

I initially wanted to make a cupcake pin cushion since it's a popular design and seems easy to make. However, I can't think of anything I had on hand that I can use as base. So when I got home, I started going through my kitchen cabinets and shelves and found a couple of empty Gerber baby food bottles. I decided to use those. They don't look like cupcake base though... and then I remembered this project from Tea Rose Home and thought, I can make flower pin cushions instead!

I was able to finish this one last night:

yey! I now have a pretty pin cushion!

If you want to make one, here's what you will need:

• an empty jar/bottle... I used an empty Gerber baby food bottle for mine.
• dry moss
• 2 different colors of felt (one will do... or more colors... depends on how you want to design your petals)
• Lace (optional)
• Fabric, cut in a circle approximately 6 inches in diameter
• Material to use as stuffing for the cushion (I only had polyester so I used that... I read somewhere that wool works better for pin cushions though)
• needle and thread
• glue gun.

STEP 1. Remove all labels from the bottle and then fill the bottle with moss.

STEP 2. (Optional) Trim your bottle with lace. You can skip this part since this isn't really necessary. I just wanted to hide the ribbing on the bottle.

STEP 3. Take your fabric and sew a basting stitch along the edges of the circle. Then pull the thread to gather the sides. (sorry, no photo)

STEP 4. Fill the fabric with your choice of stuffing and then pull the thread tightly to close the opening. Sew a few stitches across the opening to make sure it stays securely closed. Your cushion is done!

STEP 5. Take your felt and cut petal shapes. You can use the template I used below:

The size of the flower will depend on the final size of your cushion. The flower has to be bigger than the diameter of the cushion. For mine, the flower was 4 inches wide.

You will need 2 pieces of the flower shapes. You need to cut off the center of the flowers, arrange the petals and then glue them together. 

STEP 6: Put a generous amount of hot glue around the center of the flower shapes and attach your cushion.

STEP 7: Take your jar/bottle and put glue along the top and then attach the bottom of the flower.

Ta-dah! You're done!

this one is for my pins... I have 2 more bottles and I plan to make at least one more for my needles.

Oh look, a butterfly decided to stop by! (Andrea's hair clip... that butterfly just dropped by for picture taking purposes :)

I linked up to the following link parties:

CraftOManiac | Tea Rose Home | Sumo's Sweet Stuff | Sew Can Do | Lady Bug Blessings | It's So Very Cheri | The Girl Creative  | Gluesticks  | Saturday Mornings | The Tattered Tag |