Craft Blog

This is a great quickie project to gift to a sewer or needlecraft junkie! It takes hardly any time to throw together (the main time waster is waiting for the glue to dry!) and you can customise it to your hearts desire with cool fabrics, ric rac, buttons etc. I love how they look like little cupcake pincushions.

You Need:

• Something tubular - for the small one I used a toilet roll, for the larger ones I used the tube found in a ball of cotton yarn, the inside of a packing tape roll is also an option
• Scraps of fabric, one rectangular piece 2cm longer than the diameter of your tube, and 1cm larger than the width, two square pieces 2.5cm larger than the outer edge of your tube - these square pieces don’t have to be the same as one will be hidden within the tube.
• Stuffing
• Sewing machine or needle and thread for hand sewing
• PVA glue
• A piece of felt (optional)

First you’re going to want to cut your tube down to the height you want, mine was 2.5cm tall but you can make it as big or small as you like. For the toilet roll I just used scissors, for the yarn inner I used a bread knife and then neatened the edges with a pair of scissors. Try to make it as even as possible. The uncut edge will be the bottom of your pincushion so it stands straight.

Cut your two squares into rough circles, I place the two pieces together, fold into four and then just cut one curve. Then place right sides together and sew the edges together - it doesn’t have to be perfect. Contrasting thread used for your viewing pleasure - it had nothing to do with me not being bothered to wind a new black bobbin on… honest.

And you have a circle. Make a small slit in the centre (if you’re using two different fabrics then you want your slit in the side that isn’t going to be seen… obviously ;)) Turn it inside out through the hole and stuff with the wadding - you can also use a mixture of wool roving and wire wool to keep your needles sharp and rust free.

Now is a good time to put your stuffed circle into the tube and just make sure it isn’t either under or over stuffed and that it sticks up as much as you want it to. If it’s not puffy enough then add more stuffing, if it wont even fit into the tube then take some out. Once you’ve stuffed it to perfection you can sew up the hole… or you can just cheat as I’ll explain later.

Smear PVA glue all over the outside, not too much, just enough to make the fabric stick, blow on it to get it tacky so it will stick faster and stop your fabric slipping around too much. Wrap it completely around the tube, when you reach the beginning (or is it the end?? deep.) just fold over the fabric onto itself to create a neat seam - if you need a photo of this then it can be found here on flickr, but it doesn’t fit into my lovely layout for this page, and I don’t think it’s necessarily essential to have a photo for “fold over your material”, but hey, if you need it, it’s there!

More glue on the inside, smear that around a bit and then start folding over the edges of your fabric. You’ll want to do this as evenly as possible to ensure that you don’t get any folds on the visible part of the tube. This is normally the time that the baby will wake up/phone will ring/mailman will arrive with an essential package, right when you have glue up to your shoulders. I keep a wet flannel on my desk to wipe my hands on so I can jump between gluing and pulling Declan away from my oh-so-tempting fabric shelves.

And you have a lovely pretty tube. I like to put some PVA around the inside, then scrunch up your stuffed circle and put it in, keeping it as small as possible until you’re completely inside, let it go and it will puff up to touch the sides. You have a while moving it about, and as the glue dries clear it isn’t really noticeable if you screw it up ;). Hot glue would also do well, but I don’t think it would be as forgiving.

Here comes the felt! Yay! I would make everything out of felt if I had my way! This part isn’t essential, unless you’re a neat freak or you’re giving the pincushion as a gift. Cut out a circle of felt to fit the inner diameter of your tube, throw some more glue onto it and stick it onto the bottom. It’s not needed, but as you can tell by the picture, it does make your project look a lot more “finished”.

You can add something pretty to jazz it up even more, ribbon, beading - I’m all for the sparkly so I’d slapping rhinestones all over this baby if I had some to hand! I’d also like to try a patchwork top, or tube, or maybe add some little felt shapes to the outside. You could go crazy with it - you’ll find they’re like Tribbles, they’ll just keep on multiplying, my family are all going to end up with pincushions for Christmas this year… I’m not entirely sure what my Father In Law will think of that

As with all tutorials on CraftBlog.com.au this tutorial is for personal use only, please do not use this tutorial to make items to sell.

Fern Treacy is a Sydney based mum of two and the editor of CraftBlog. Interests include sewing, painting, crochet and graphic design. Originally from the UK, Fern has fully embraced the Australian craft scene and spends every available moment locked away in her craft room designing and creating. Her personal blog can be found at NotNigella.

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