Thursday, March 11, 2010

Rolled Felt Pincushion

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

This is a quick tutorial for a simple pincushion that requires little to no sewing. It is a perfect project for those that work with children in churches, schools or girl scouts. The children can make it for themselves or as gifts. If you volunteer teaching crafting and sewing in a senior's center, making one of these for each participant along with their own pins and needles would be useful in class and will make a wonderful and appreciated keepsake.

For this project, you may use felted wool in place of felt if you'd prefer. I have also chosen to use Fabri-Tac fabric glue although a white tacky glue works just fine.


Cut a 1-inch strip of felt times any length you desire. Obviously, the longer the strip, the larger your pincushion will be. For this project, I used 56-inches which gave me about a 2-inch pincushion.


Start by rolling up one end of the strip, applying even pressure as you roll.


Mark with a pin the length of the felt that will become the outside row.


Sew (or glue) some cute buttons evenly spaced along the strip.


Place glue onto the back of the strip and glue it around the perimeter of the pincushion.


Cut a cardboard circle the size of the pincushion base.


Glue the cardboard circle to the felt.


Trim the felt close to the cardboard.


Place glue onto the cardboard and glue it to the base of the pincushion.


Completed pincushion. Simple, useful, and inexpensive to make.




An alternative: Choose a bottle cap for the base of your pincushion. I prefer to have the felt protrude 1/4-inch above the top of the bottle cap. You will need to measure the height of your bottle cap and add 1/4-inch to the width of your felt strip.

**Note that a large plastic or metal lid (from plastic bowls or wide-mouthed jars) can be used in place of a bottle cap. This would either make a large pincushion or a drink coaster. The benefit of having a drink coaster made in this fashion would be that any condensation left from drinking glasses would not seep through and damage wooden surfaces.**


Roll the felt as indicated above. Add a generous puddle of glue to the inside bottom of the bottle cap and glue the felt roll into place.


To decorate the bottle cap, glue on a strip of felt and top that with some pretty ribbon. If you happen to have a really cool bottle cap, just leave it as is.


I hope that you enjoyed this pincushion tutorial. I have been making these for almost as long as I can remember. It makes a great traveling pincushion because it is small, and if you forget it somewhere, no big deal!

Have a wonderful and creative day!

Aloha!



P.S. I apologize to those of you that have me on reader and caught my earlier post. I begin each of my postings with a series of notes and photographs and then return to refine it when I have the time. I mistakenly pressed the wrong button and posted it in it's raw form. Oopsie!

25 comments:

Loralynn said...

I especially like the one in the bottle cap! Thanks for the tutorial!

BigĂș said...

It´s so beautiful!
really precius!

aida said...

i like it...:)

manda said...

Oooh! Great idea! thanks!

Jean said...

You have so many cute ideas for pincushions!

SG said...

Another great idea! Thanks!

CraftCrave said...

Just a quick note to let you know that a link to this post will be placed on CraftCrave.com in the Handcraft category today [12 Mar 10:52am GMT]. Thanks, Maria

Tolentreasures said...

As usual, another great idea! I will be making some of these this weekend. What wonderful little favors those would make or little "thank-you" gifts for all the ladies who are sewing at the church. Can't wait to try them and I am glad that I didn't throw away those two bottle caps laying in the console of my vehicle. Thanks so much.

Cathy

sweetiepie said...

How cute and simple!! Thanks for sharing.

Take care.

Blanca said...

Hi from Spain!
I just found your blog and I love it! Specially your tuts. Happy if you visit me: http://laslaboresdeblanca.blogspot.com
U r in my blog roll too: blogsimperdibles.blogspot.com
Kisses!

Khris said...

Thanks Lettie for another easy tutorial...can you send me a pic so I can put it on the freebies blog...hugs Khris

Carol said...

Cute idea. I'll have to ask my daughter to try it out.

Phyllis said...

Hey Lettie,

I made two tiny pink mice from your tutorial...pop over for a visit to see how I did :)

Jude said...

What a great idea, I can see myself making lots of these. thankyou for sharing.

Janine said...

Hi Lettie, this is another beautiful yet simple idee.
I just wanted to tell you, that I made the strawberrys wih my girls in the youth-center.
They decided to make just the berries without the mouse- face.
It worked out so beautifully.
They where so glad with their handmade berries.
Thanks again for your great tutorials.
Hugs
Janine

Mom2fur said...

Lettie, you always amaze me when I stop by here. Where on earth do you get all your adorable ideas!? I'm definitely going to make this one. I recently made up the little flowers you designed for hairpins, although I will probably use them for something else. They are just too much fun to make!

MaryLu said...

Another fabulous idea!! I just love the simplicity of this one. Where on earth do you get all these wonderful creations, your head must be bursting sometimes!

Suze said...

Thanks for sharing yet another great tutorial. : )

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

This is so cute! I love it. Thanks so much, I'll be linking to this.

Patte-mon said...

Hi, I have linked this tutorial to my blog. Please feel free to visit at http://handcrafttutorial.blogspot.com/.

Lisa said...

How cute! I've never seen anything like it! Kinda reminds me of a fruit-by-the-foot...remember those?

Jenny Bolech said...

I posted about these over at my blog today - I loved this tutorial! Thanks for all the great ideas :)

Merry said...

Wonderful tutorial and great idea.

Anonymous said...

Great tutorial!!
i love those pincushions
here is mine
http://my-wayof.blogspot.com/2012/02/accesorios-costura.html

thanks for a great idea

carmenromon said...

me encantan tus trabajos