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!

Pass the cheese, please!

Your every day Ruby Red variety lunching on a wedge of Swiss.


Premium Yellow with a discriminating taste for Gouda.


There's always a few snobs in the bunch!

Aloha!

Strawberry Mice Pincushion

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

Thank you for your response to my strawberry mice. I was uncertain whether these mice would be of interest simply because they are quite tiny and a bit fiddly to make. This is just a quick little tutorial showing you the basics. If you dislike working in miniature, please feel free to make these larger. They're a fun project either way.

Let me just say that although you can hand stitch the components together (and drive yourself crazy), gluing is so much easier when working with tiny pieces like the ears. I have used a combination of stitching and gluing. My fabric glue of choice is Fabri-Tac.


To create the body of the mice, start with a 4" circle. Cut the circle in half at the center point. Each half will make one mouse.
Fold the half-circle in half, right sides together. Using a 1/4" seam, sew along the straight edge. Turn right side out.


With needle and thread, take a running stitch along the raw edge. Stuff with your favorite pincushion stuffing. If you will be using the mice as needle sharpeners, you may wish to fill them with emery. Gather tightly, knot securely, and clip thread.


To make the ears, start off with a 3/8" square of felt. Round off all 4 corners. Cut the circle in half.


To create the leaves at the base of the strawberry, start with a 1-1/2" circle. Cut 6 slits 1/2" in length evenly spaced around the circle. Trim the tip of each segment to create the pointy edge of a leaf. Make a small hole in the center and feed rattail cord through the hole. Tie a knot on one end of the rattail.


To create the tail leaves, start with a 5/8" square of felt. Round off both bottom corners and cut the other end into a point. You are trying to achieve a tear drop shape.


Glue the hull leaves over the gathered end of the strawberry, making sure to hide the knot in the rattail between the strawberry and the leaves.

Place a thin line of glue along the straight edge of each ear and glue it into place at both sides of the mouse's head.


Place a small amount of fabric glue to the rounded end of the tail leaves and press it into place around the rattail. Continue randomly adding leaves.


With a beading needle and seed beads, add the eyes and a nose. If you wish, add beads to the body for a little bit of mousie bling.


To create the whiskers, thread 6 strands of embroidery floss onto a needle. Tie a knot approximately 1/2" in from the end of the thread. Sew completely through the snout to the opposite side. Secure the whiskers onto the mouse with another knot. Clip thread to approximately 1/2". Trim each side of the whiskers to the desired length. Separate the individual threads to form the whiskers.


I am sure that most of you already know how to make a round, tufted pincushion. If you do not, I recommend this tutorial to create the body of the pincushion. It is a wonderful tutorial with clear and easy to follow instructions.
I used 8" circles for the body of my pincushion as I prefer a fairly large cushion to accommodate a larger amount of pins.
Follow the tutorial to it's completion, omitting the button on top as this will be covered by the "strawberry bush."


To create the "strawberry bush" that protrudes from the center of the pincushion, cut a 12" x 2" rectangle of green felt. Cut 11 slits, approximately 1" apart, stopping about 3/8" from the bottom edge. Trim the tip of each segment to create the pointy edge of a leaf.


With needle and thread, take a running stitch along the straight edge. Gather and tie a knot to secure.


Roll the straight edge, stitching in place as you go.


To assemble, glue the ends of the tails into the center of the pincushion. Glue the "strawberry bush" on top to hide the mechanics.


Have fun with this tutorial. I hope to see colonies of strawberry mice pop up throughout Blogland.

Have a wonderful and creative day!

Aloha!

Giveaway

Just popping in to alert you to a fun giveaway by a wonderful German artist by the name of Janine She is currently celebrating her first year blogiversary on her blog, Join Janine. Her giveaway consists of a beautiful hand painted box filled with felt pens. Her work is inspiring, fresh, and whimsical. I love her painting style and I know that you will too. Besides, she is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. Please stop by and say hello, take a peek at her beautiful paintings, and enter to win a beautiful keepsake.

I will be back in a few days with a tutorial for the strawberry mice. Until then, take care.

Aloha,

Busy!!

I've been so busy that I can't decide whether I'm coming...


...or going.


I am infatuated with these miniature strawberry mice and am currently designing a project to go along with them. The mice are quick and easy to make and best of all, you can't have just one. Before you know it, you'll be building yourself a whole colony. I'm pretty sure of it.

I did want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your encouraging comments and emails. I'm always taken aback by your generous and kind words. I will be back as soon as I tend to a few pressing matters. Until then....take care...be well!

Aloha!

Fleur de marguerite

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

A bouquet of delicate daisies. Quick and easy to make and oh so pretty to look at.

To create these daisies, you will need scraps of fabric approximately 3" x 6" for the petals and 1-1/2" square for the flower center. You will also need a 3-inch square and a 1-1/2-inch square of Heat 'n Bond Ultra Hold, a 5/8" button, hot glue, floral tape, and floral wire. If you would like to add leaves to your bouquet, you will need green fabric, Heat 'n Bond, white glue, floral wire and floral tape.


Begin by making the following circle templates from cardboard:
Flower Petals--2-3/4"
Flower Center--1-1/4"


Fuse the 3-inch square piece of Heat 'n Bond to the wrong side of the petal fabric. Remove the paper backing.


Fuse the fabric to the wrong side of the remaining petal fabric.


Place the 2-3/4" petal template onto the fabric and trace lightly with a pencil or disappearing ink pen. Cut out the circle along the traced line.


Place the 1-1/4" flower center template onto the non-glue side of the 1-1/2" piece of Heat 'n Bond and trace with a pencil. Fuse to the wrong side of the of flower center fabric. Cut out the circle along the traced line.


Remove the paper backing from the 1-1/4" circle and fuse it to the center of the 2-3/4" circle.


You will be cutting 12 slits evenly around the outer circle. Cut ONE slit all the way to the flower center. Cut and remove completely two sections of petals, one from each side of the slit.
Follow the diagram for cutting.


Trim off a thin sliver on both sides of each slit. The space between the slits should measure between 1/16th and 1/32th of an inch. This will give you a slight separation between the petals. Keep in mind that each petal does not need to look exactly the same. Mother Nature's own work is seldom duplicated.


To create the flower stem, run the floral wire (approx. 18" or whatever size you'd prefer) through the button hole starting at the bottom of the button and back down through the other hole.


Twist the wire securely to keep the button firmly in place.


Place a small glob of glue onto one of the tabs(where the petals were removed).

Bring the tabs together around the stem, overlapping the tabs until the flower petals are close to each other.


Optional: Adding stems of leaves to the bouquet.
To make a simple pattern, start off with a 1" x 2" piece of cardboard. Round off both bottom corners. Cut to a point at the top. Use this pattern to trace onto fused green fabric and cut out on the traced lines.


Glue a 4" piece of floral wire to the underside of each of the leaves. Let dry completely.


Create the stem with a double strand of wire (approximately 12-1/2" or whatever size you'd prefer). Wrap with floral tape, adding leaves as you go around.


Create several stems of leaves to act as filler in your bouquet.


As you can see, the addition of leaves adds fullness and interest to the bouquet.


There you have it, a whimsical bouquet of fleur de marguerite to brighten your day.


This would make a wonderful bouquet for Easter or for Mother's Day or simply to welcome in Spring.

Take care, everyone!

Aloha!