Tag Archives: pin cushion

Baby Pin Cushions

These baby pin cushions were made using old egg cups. Love them!

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Turn them into pin cushions by getting some stuffing used to stuff toys and then roll it up in a ball and cover it with fabric.  Secure the bottom by sewing it, then run hot glue around the edge of the cup and insert the pin cushion part. I sewed a button on before I did this step and then added some lace to the edge of one of them. There you have it, a lovely pin cushion.

Other things you can use to make pin cushions include tea cups (see my previous post here), old jugs, silverware. Use ceramics or silver rather than glass as that way you can hide the messy part underneath the stuffing.

Another thing you can use for the cushion part are foam balls. I have used these in the past, I just didn’t have any that were small enough for this job. I like the foam balls as they give a nice round finish, but these certainly look more handmade to me, so I like them too as they are kind of uneven and definitely one of a kind.  Foam balls can be sourced from craft shops or places like Crazy Clarks or other $2 shops. They can vary in price so check out various places before you purchase. I have seen them in art shops but they are always very expensive. Last week I found an unopened packet for $1 in a charity shop but I think that was a rare find.

Until next time,

Debra
xxx

 

Completed Mason Jar Pin Cushion

Recently I showed you how I did some fabric transfers and now I am showing you how I used the transfers to make a pin cushion with a Mason jar. Here is the completed product.

 

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I am not sure I like the way you can see the fabric transfer outline on the top. In hind site I think it would have been better if I cut carefully around the edge of the transfer before I ironed it on to the fabric so you couldn’t see the outline as much. Alternatively, it may work better on different type of cloth but I had this cotton duck on hand at the time.

I got the Mason jars off ebay.  They are celebrating 100 years so I got them in this cool turquoise colour.  The jar enables you to store cotton or other items in the jar and have your needles or pins stuck into the top part.

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Fabric Transfer

Have you ever wanted to do a fabric transfer? Today I finally managed to use my transfer paper that I bought a few weeks back to do fabric transfer. I found a fantastic graphic and tutorial at The Graphics Fairy (great site!) and thanks also to Gina from The Shabby Creek Cottage who did the tutorial on how to do a fabric transfer. I purchased some Mason jars just a few days ago and they arrived in record time. I will show you the finished fabric transfer post soon. A Mason jar is used for preserves and works well for this as it has a two-part lid (with a hole in it and a separate flat piece that is used inside the lid).  Here is the finished fabric transfer and the instructions are below.

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Once you find an image you want to use for your fabric transfer you may need to reverse the image.  I used Microsoft Word to do this. Paste the image into MS Word document, right click on the image and select Properties then Size. Resize the image as needed.  I resized mine to 2 inches x 2 inches.

I have never used transfer paper before. I bought mine at Officeworks, they cost around $25 for 12 sheets so I think they are quite expensive, however, I wanted them so I paid the money. In the future I will try to do a fabric transfer with something other than the transfer paper.  The first step (read the instructions in the pack!)  is to print out a test print on plain paper. My first one I actually spent a long time working out the size of fabric (4 inches x 4 inches) I would need for my project and then to line up the images on the paper, as per the image below.

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Then it occurred to me (doh!) that I didn’t actually need to print them like that on the paper as I would be cutting them out individually before ironing them on the fabric. I created a table in Word with 2 columns and then pasted the image in each column several times to fill the page.  The image below shows one of the columns. I was able to print 12 images on the one piece of paper. I could probably have done 3 columns and 18 images.

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Once cut out then iron as per the instructions on to the fabric. I used cotton duck fabric.  It does leave the glue shape around the image. That may come off when I wash it but not sure. My project is on a small scale so that may not matter.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I did have one that didn’t work. I must have peeled it off too soon or maybe I did not ironed it for long enough. Once peeled off you should not have any image left on the paper. You can also see on the fabric that the left hand side of the image has not transferred correctly.

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I hope you enjoyed reading about my fabric transfer. I enjoyed doing the process, except for the ironing bit which is a little repetitious and boring.  Come back and see my completed project soon.

Debra
xxx

another pin cushion

Here is another great teacup pin cushion I made. This one is a bit more modern looking. The teacup is quite big so plenty of surface to put your pins. I sell a variety of styles and sizes in these teacup pin cushions.

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Debra
xxx