Vintage Zinc Lid Pincushion Tutorial

I love using plastic bottle caps to make pincushions, so when I saw one made from a vintage zinc canning jar lid I knew I needed to make one to match my sewing machine set. I thought you might like to make one too, so I made this tutorial to share. You’ll need:

• vintage zinc lid
• scrap fabric
• fiber fill
• a matching button
• coordinating embroidery floss and needle
• misc sewing tools

I measured my lid and decided that a 4” circle would be the perfect size to cut my fabric (cut 2). Sew right sides together, all the way around (yep, all the way, do not leave a space to turn the fabric).
Clip seam allowance all the way around. Carefully and cut a small clip between the edge and center on the back side of the circle. It needs to be large enough to turn the fabric through and stuff stuffing into.Stuff generously, when you think that it’s full enough add another handful(notice the stuffing, it’s puffing out of the hole). This will make the pincushion nice and firm. It will also make the cushion fit perfectly into the lid.Get your floss on your needle and make a large knot about 3” from the end. Make a stitch through the center of the cushion, pull as tight as possible and knot.Use the floss to divide the cushion into sections(I made 8 sections), pull the floss tightly and tie off again, but do not cut thread.
Sew the decorative button to the center to cover all the stitches, knot tightly again, and trim threads.Use glue (or not) and stuff cushion into lid, it will fit perfectly with the seam lining up with the top of the lid. Admire your new pincushion! If you make one using my tutorial, I’d love to see a picture, share a link with us.

Mini Pin Cushion Jars

Eight years ago I was working at the Holiday Inn in Memphis, Tennessee. I delivered room service during the week and bartended on the weekends. Everyone who ordered a sandwich for room service got a tiny little jar of mayo, a tiny little jar of mustard, and a mini jar of ketchup. I loved those tiny little jars and I would often rinse them out and bring them home. They were stored in boxes and hauled to several new apartments, back here to Nebraska, a few more houses, a storage unit, and then to our new house where they we promptly stored in the basement with everything else. I brought a box of them up this weekend, one of the treasures found while cleaning.
A milk jug cap was the perfect size for a pin cushion for the lid, I have attached it permanently to the metal lid with a brad.The pin cushion will, of course, be embellished more (rick rack!!!) and the metal lid will be painted. This color combo reminds me of cotton candy, which then makes me think of the circus, so I will be painting “big top” stripes on the lid. (Yes, that is exactly how my brain works!)
Fill the jar with buttons, safety pins, and thread card, add some more pins and a needle to the pin cushion and it’s a mini sewing kit, wouldn’t it make a great gift?
I have a lot of these little jars, anyone have any ideas on what else I can do with them?

Are You Going to Throw that Out?

I think that is my catch phrase. I say that a lot, just try to throw something away when I’m around. My friend Lisa (oobbles) even saves her trash for me, she has really good trash. I will also circle the block to pick up something off the curb and I can’t walk by a trash can or dumpster without peeking in.

Plastic caps, lids, and cups have really captured my attention lately. I really enjoy making bottle cap pincushions, I like that the pins won’t poke through the bottom. Then I had a thought: why just use soda caps?, any size would work, right? I have sorted them by size in my crafty “spice” jars, small, medium, and large. BTW I have a lot of soda caps, let me know if you need any. I have started covering them, so they are ready to be embroidered when the mood strikes me. I also just bought that floss winder for $.99 (best investment!), I keep my floss on bobbins on a ring and it keeps everything neat and portable. If you embroider a lot winding the bobbins might be counter productive, but I don’t so it’s great for me.

I think that the medium sized ones are my favorite, what size of pincushion is the best?

All I Can Do Is Crochet

Wednesday morning at 10:30, while trying to decide what I was going to write about for my blog, I decided that I needed to make Little Miss a cute summer top, something with knitting or crochet.  I popped over to ravelry and 10 minutes later was printing the pattern and picking the yarn.  By lunchtime the crocheting was done (we had lunch a little late) and it was time to start the sewing.  The sewing was going well, but I had to stop to go pick up Little Sir from school, and that’s when things started going wrong. 

Apparently I had left the lights on in the car all day and the battery was dead, did I mention that I am a week from my due date and walking is not something I want to do?  Oh well, so we walked to pick him up, luckily it’s not to far to his school and we got there right on time.  Back at home snacks were eaten and kids were playing and I was Googling to find a repair shop that would come and jump start the car when something went horribly wrong with the computer, a virus attack, oh nooooooo, but I just renewed my anti-virus!  Yeah, so now the computer is pretty much useless (I have managed to fix it, but it took me a couple of days and a lot of cussing).

I won’t bore you with more about all this, but there has been a lot of walking and a lot of whining (from me).  Anyway back to the crochet, the top is finished and cute, yay, something went right.  Wow, crocheting is a lot faster than knitting, maybe I should make something else, like that cupcake purse that has been on my list for a while (that was yesterday).  By yesterday evening the purse was almost finished (must weave in ends) and another idea had hit me, what if I made this with crochet thread and a tiny hook and made it into a bottle cap pin cushion? I can’t find my brown thread, but oh well, white will work, and before bedtime I had this, almost finished, but it still needs something…like a cherry…hmmmm, use a bead or crochet one… Oh and now that I’ve made it once I want to make it again, only different and better, with felt and beads and I really need to get started on it now so I can finish up before dinner.  And a giant one would be cool too, with sprinkles and glitter, I could use a vinegar bottle for a hard base and paint it brown, and speaking of glitter I want to glitter some shoes, and that reminds me, I need a shoe rack, and, and, and…

Yeah, and this is exactly how my mind works, is this how everyone’s brain works or am I “special”?  And before I forget, I used the top half of this crochet halter top pattern (PDF) as my base and added the fabric and I used this cupcake cradle purse as a starting point for my cupcake purse without cradle.

Have a super crafty weekend!

Cocktail Ring for a Voodoo Queen

We all know that Voodoo Queens get invited to a lot of cocktail parties and now they can have a stunning ring that conveniently keeps their pins handy and sharp for poking dolls.  Next in the design sketchbook:  Voodoo doll bracelets and purses.Okay, seriously, last Friday I had a pincushion ring featured in my favorites.  It was really cute and it reminded me of when I first showed my friends the bottle cap pincushions I was making, someone (I don’t remember who, Kelly, Christy, ???) suggested I make them into rings and I finally have.

An adjustable ring base, a bottle cap, E6000 glue, felt, embroidery floss, rick rack, and stuffing is all you need to make one of your own.  I started by sanding the bottom of my bottle cap lightly to help the glue stick.  Then I traced around the bottom of the bottle cap on felt and cut it out.  In the center of that felt circle I cut a little slit and slipped the pad part of the ring base through the hole, just like a button.  I put a dab of glue on the pad and stuck it to the cap.  I left the felt unglued so I could sew it easier.

Then finished cutting out and sewing the pincushion (see this picture tutorial).  I think that the embellishing is what really makes these little things, I like to add rick rack around the base of mine.  Quick tip: rick rack is polyester, to stop it from fraying where it’s cut use a lighter to lightly singe the raw edge, this melts the fibers together and keeps them from unraveling.I love how it turned out, so cute and handy.  I’ve really been loving this red and turquoise color combo lately, I hope you guys aren’t getting sick of it.  I plan on making a few more of these, but I want to order some nicer adjustable ring bases.  The one I used is okay, but there are better ones available online.

Another Bottlecap Pincushion

I made another bottle cap pincushion. This time I used a larger cap from a 1 liter soda bottle, its about 1 1/2 inches across.

I was going for a lotus flower look with a stuffed 3-D ladybug in the center.

Those spots are french knots. When I had finished to ladybug it occurred to me that I should have stuffed it with steel wool to make it a needle sharpener, there's always next time.

These pincushions are addicting, I could make one every day. I have a larger container that I'm saving for a special pincushion, it is the frosting container from a roll of refrigerator cinnamon rolls. I think I might make that one into a rose, but I want to practice a bit more first.

Pin Cushion Therapy

When I am stressed out or upset sometimes the best therapy is crafting. Crafting works well for me because it is something that I enjoy and it keeps my brain focused on creating instead of everything else. It has been a rough week and so every night, after the children go to bed, I make a bottle cap pin cushion. They are simple to make and the embellishment possibilities are endless. You can find instructions and inspiration on craftstylish.
I think that matching round dressmakers' tape measures and needle books are in my future.