Friday, June 6, 2008

Tutorial--A Handy Dandy Pincushion

**This tutorial is intended for personal use only.**


When your hubby is wrapped up in an action flick or really busy on the telephone with a client, quietly walk up to his golf bag, slowly unzip the little pocket on the side of the bag, slide your sticky little fingers into the pocket and steal, err, uhm, borrow a golf tee. Quickly zip the pocket back up and stroll nonchalantly back to your craft room (no whistling as you walk away for this is a dead giveaway that you were up to no good). You are now ready to create this cute and handy pincushion.


For this project, you will need fabric, felt, pincushion stuffing, golf tee, cardboard, disappearing ink pen, scissor, needle and thread, hot glue gun, sewing machine (optional).

I have chosen a polka dot fabric (what else!) for the petals and a solid red for the flower center.


Cut two 2-1/2-inch circles from cardboard. Cut one circle in half. These will be your patterns. The half circle will be for the petals and the whole circle will be the flower center.

Trace the petal pattern five times onto the wrong side of two layers of fabric. Trace the flower center pattern once onto the wrong side of a single layer of fabric.


Cut the circle out on the traced line; set aside.


For petals, with right sides together, secure both layers of fabric with pins.


Sew by hand or by machine around the curved edge of the five half circles, using the traced line as your seam line. Leave straight edge open for turning.


Trim around curve, turn right side out.


With needle and thread, take a running stitch along the straight edge of each petal.


Slide each half circle onto the thread, one after the other.


After all five half circles are on the thread, clip thread to release needle.


Tie both ends of the thread together to form a circle of petals. Clip thread close to knot. Set piece aside.


For flower center, take a running stitch around the edge of the circle, stuff with your favorite pincushion stuffing, pull tight and secure with a knot. Clip ends of thread close to knot.


Cut a 1-1/4-inch circle out of felt. Notch out center creating a small hole.


Gather the four components together. You are now ready to assemble.


Using a hot glue gun, place glue under the flat portion of the golf tee. Carefully slip the pointed end of the golf tee through the hole in the center of the petals. Hold for a few seconds until glue has set.


Glue the flower center securely to the top of the petals, covering the head of the golf tee.


Turn flower over, put the pointed end of the golf tee through the hole in the felt circle. Glue the felt circle securely to the base of the flower. This will hide the mechanics and will give your pincushion a more polished look.


Pop your new pincushion into a spool of thread, add a couple of needles, and you're ready to start sewing. This is a handy portable piece to carry with you while hand stitching and can be easily changed from spool to spool whenever necessary. No more lost sewing needs in the arms of your sofa again.


I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial. I know many of you have seen this before, but I wanted to share it because I know that there are some who haven't. I find this pincushion indispensable when I'm working in front of the television. It also makes a good travelling pincushion for take-along projects.

Have a fabulous weekend. See you all on Monday.

Aloha!

**This tutorial is intended for personal use only.**

43 comments:

annemarie said...

What a wonderful tutorial - I cannot wait to try this project this weekend. I have never seen this idea before so you are right Lettie - it is new to some of us!! Thanks for sharing with us and have a great weekend.

Arlette said...

Hi Anne, I don't have any way of getting back to you when you comment. Do you have a blog? That polkadot cake you mentioned yesterday sounds like it's right up my alley.
I'm glad that this tutorial is something that you can use. Have fun making your pincushion.
Take care!
Lettie

Cathi said...

What an absolutely fabulous tutorial! I cannot wait to try this out.
Thank you very, very much! And I know exactly where DH's has his golf stuff. :-)

sweetiepie said...

Lettie - I have never seen this either. How clever. I can definitely use this. Thanks for sharing. Joyce in Iowa

KB said...

Very cute! I'll trade you a glasses pin for one! Email me if you're interested.

Elly D said...

Thank you Lettie, for taking the time to make this tutorial for us all. Your pincushions are so pretty.
Hugs Elly - Scotland

Stephanie D said...

How very cute and clever! I might have to put golf tees on my ongoing list for "things-to-buy-at-yard-sales". Thanks!

Anonymous said...

That's a great idea! My DH doesn't play golf; he rides a motorbike! I wonder if there are Hondaparts I can use *lol*

Annette said...

Thank you for the great tutorial. That will be a fun project for me this afternoon. Your designs are always so beautiful. I love checking out your blog.
Annette

papel1 said...

I love your pincushion tutorials!
Judy

Darlene said...

This is darling - thank you so much for sharing your tutorial. You are so talented!

Lady Beekeeper said...

What an excellent tutorial!!!

May Britt said...

Wonderful pincushion. I would start it right away, but what is a golf tee??? Don't have it in the house and haven't seen it somewhere else either. So I have to think about another way to make the pin into the spool.

Rowena said...

Lettie, you've done it again! Now this is an easy project that I will have to do once I get my sewing machine (still holding off on that). The other day I was hemming my new pair of Roxy's (yeah, I finally forced myself but I have 2 more to go!) and had to be careful of loose pins falling onto the sofa. Usually I hold them between my teeth but this is way, way better! You go girl!

Laila said...

Hi. Found your blog through Abyquilt,and loved it. You have a lot of beautiful ideas. I think I'm going to buy me some golf tee's.May be one forr Abtquilt too. We have a golf links here. Have a great day and thanks for the idea.

Rowena said...

Lettie, regarding your comment on the vegs...I mentally put on my "spock'em out" glasses and scrutinize everything in the produce section. Some women check out sales, I check out vegs. lol

sweetiepie said...

Lettie - I have a surprise for you. Visit my blog to collect it. Joyce in Iowa

Kim West said...

What a great tutorial. I just purchased 100 golf tees on ebay... I won't make 100, but will make a few of them for some friends...

Marzia Melloni said...

molto bellii tuoi lavori, come sempre.
Ciaoooooooooooo
Marzia

Anonymous said...

Can you tell me the size of you little heads are in you Pickled People jar?

Thanks Janie

Anonymous said...

I also wanted to ask, on the polka-dotted nosegay Do you glue the fabric to the underside of the flower wire? That is the way I used to make them, I did not know if there is another way of doing them. And where do you find all the pretty polka-dotted fabric? Thanks again Janie

Kizzy said...

Hi found your blog though Lilly/ I make the pincushion,I just love your blog, come and see me sometime kizzy

Julia Aston said...

I was blog hopping and came upon your blog - I just love this little pin cushion - it's so bright and cheery! thanks for the super tutorial!

Kimonos and Sushi(OLD BLOG) said...

What a clever idea using a golf tee.
I am in a stitchers angel group and I have to make 3 things for my buddy I will try this and post on my site later.
So many talented people out there with clever ideas....Thanks for sharing...
Andrea

PatchworkPottery said...

What an adorable little pincushion!
I just found you through a comment on my blog from Rowena. She said you mentioned me? :o)

MaryAnn said...

Great tutorial!!!! going to try this right away....it makes me smile so I will make someone else smile when I give them one.

This Texas girl said THANKS

ARC said...

This is such a clever idea - thanks for posting it, I now regret giving my brother-in-law the golf tees I found!

FlourishingPalms said...

Thanks for sharing your instructions! No golfers in the family or among friends, so I had to buy golf tees! But, I made a dozen of these pincushions to give to friends.

When "mass producing," I found it was easier to trace and sew petal fabrics in a completely round circle, then cut them in half for petals. But, you do end up with one extra petal--six instead of five.

Linda in Iowa

Cisca said...

Thank you for your nice comment to my golf tee pincushon i made by your tutorial. I asked my brother in law for some golf tee's and it was really easy to make it. I showed them tonight on my quilt-lesson and they liked it a lot.

Cisca in the Netherlands

Sewing-Chick said...

It will be great when you post how to add wire :) I made eight of these the other day but not sure that that's enough for a bouquet! I used pipe cleaners and rolled up the end, poked it through the hole in the flower, and used some hot glue to attach it to the petals and center. As the pipe cleaners were red and not green, I then wrapped them in florist tape. I will then wrap all the stems with ribbon (haven't gotten that far yet) and then will post them on my page. If you want to see the finished product, check back in a couple days :)

Team Chicka said...

Well done! I am so excited to start making these! Thanks! Gen

Divânia's- trabalhos manuais said...

I love so much your blog...thank you!!!!!!Tahnk you very very very much!!!

Hugs from Brazil@!!!

Divânia
www.flickr.com/photos/divania_nogueira

Tricia, CZT said...

This is just the best pincushion! Your instructions are so easy to follow. You are an inspiration... thank you so much. Looking forward to reading more pincushion tutorials.

Thank you for sharing your creations.

Tricia

Heckety said...

I've never seen this idea before but it makes perfect sense. Thank you so much for taking the time to post this tutorial as its just great!

Mirtha Marìa Andrea said...

Hola!!! visitando a mis amigas descubrì tu blog y me encanto, voy a seguirte,te felicito hermosos trabajos.Te invito tambièn a que visites mi blog. Un cariño muy grande. Andrea(Las manualidades de Andrea)

sandra said...

Hi Arlette,
I am commenting to ask permission to make some of these pincushions to sell as a fundraiser. My husband and I go to vanuatu every year to do repair work on various health centres and a school. We go with our church. we raise money for the materials for the projects and to pay local tradespeople. we pay our own airfairs and personal expenses. so money raised goes directly to the project. Nest year we are hoping to re-roof a health centre.

I live in Australia.
Sandra

Unknown said...

Hello ...... Just wanted you to know how much I enjoy your tutorials. I am having a blast. Working on the spool pincushion.
Love your page of information, very inspiring.

LaVerne

Papy said...

Ciao Hello I'm Italian and I like your tutorial, but I have serious problems to convert measurements from inches to cm. could you give me aid is involved?
I tried to make your pincushion, but I do not understand the measures.
Thanks
Papy

Coffeebean's Dailies said...

Hi! I just found you by googling pincushions and found this little flower for the spool! I love it! I hope to make it tomorrow! Thank you so much! I have become a friend and will be stalking your blog now!

Speckles512 said...

I just found your blog tonight. I teach FACS....you know, home ec. I love your pin cushion and think after spring break I will let some of my students make the little pin cushion to learn how to hand baste and have a cute project to show for the efforts! Thank you for sharing.

Ashrt said...

Hi i made this pincushion over the weekend was a great thing to make so easy to do.
Ive shown the one i made on my blog and placed a link to this page to show where i got the idea from

catherine said...

BEAUTIFUL!!!

Thanks

Unknown said...

I would like to have your permission to use the golf tee pincushion at a little sewing group we have - how can i do this - thanks