wood base pincushion {a tutorial}

Recently I came across the most wonderful online shop called  Beyond Measure. The shop is described as "a place selling beautiful things for folk who make" and, to my delight, it really is true. It's full of unique, beautifully made items and sewing supplies I have not come across before. Not surprisingly, I fell completely in love with their wood base pincushions.

And then, as luck would have it, I was at the store and came across some adorable wooden dip bowls. Which got my wheels turning, of course. I bought a few of the bowls, scrapped the rest of my shopping plans, and rushed home like a maniac to try to make my own wood base pincushions :). I know I'm not the only one who does these things, right?

I won't lie. It took a while for me to finally figure out how to have as few puckers in the fabric as possible but once I was finished I could not help staring at my most adorable stack of pincushions and grinning. 

And then I thought some of you might like to make a pincushion, or two, as well. So, I sent an email to Grace (owner of Beyond Measure) and she very kindly gave me permission to share this tutorial with you (since my pincushions are 100% inspired by Grace's I wanted to make sure she was on board with me sharing my tutorial).

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Please note, this tutorial shows how I made my pincushions. I'm in no way shape or form implying it's how Beyond Measure pincushions are made (because I have absolutely no idea how they make theirs) .

  

To make one pincushion, you will need:

one wooden base (mine is a 2 1/4" diameter dip bowl bought at World Market)

4.5" diameter fabric circle (you will need a bigger circle if your bowl is bigger than mine)

polyester fiberfill

sewing supplies

strong thread (I used 2 strands of embroidery thread)

glue (your choice, just make sure it's strong enough to hold fabric and wood base together)

 1. Use running stitch and about 3/8" seam allowance and stitch all the way around the perimeter of the fabric circle. Make sure to leave a 3" tail when you begin your stitches. Leave a 3" tail when you finish stitching as well.

2. Start gathering the fabric by pulling both tread ends at the same time. Go slow, make sure the fabric is spread out evenly. You're forming a little pouch of sorts.

3. Stuff the little "fabric pouch" with polyester fiberfill. Don't overfill it, try to see how much fiberfill can fit into your wooden base and go from there. Use your fingers to push and form the fiberfill inside the little pouch, try to make it as round as possible and do your best to eliminate puckers. Also, place it in your base from time to time to see if you need to pull on the tread more to make it smaller, or loosen the thread to make it bigger. The fiberfill pouch should fit snugly into the base. Once you have the size and shape you're going for, tie the thread ends together. Make a strong double or triple knot.

4. Apply glue to the inside of wood base about 1/4" from the top. Go all the way around, don't overdo it on glue, but do make sure there's enough of it.

5. Press squishy pincushion top gently but firmly into the base. Hold your hand over it for a little bit to make sure glue holds the top and let the glue dry.

6. Once the glue is dry (shouldn't take too long, mine was fine after about 20 min), add some pins to your pincushion and admire.

Hope you have tons of fun using your new super cute wood base pincushion. And, as always, if you make a project using any of my tutorials please add it to my Flickr group or use #sotakhandmade if posting on Instagram. I love seeing all your amazing creations.

Svetlana