Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Pincushion Assembly Line

I found another scrap of the red velvet, so should get about seven of the Strawberry Trios done...rather than the five I had originally cut out. So, am working to get all of them finished and available to ship.


If you have never created a strawberry pin cushion...consider doing so. They are seriously so pretty...and you can do so many different creative techniques to embellish them.


There are a couple of "tips" in creating these that I thought I'd pass along as I'm doing these.


1) Sew a machine seam around the curved top edge to help "hold" the hand gathering and keep the fabric from fraying as you gather the top.


2) Place your hand gathered running stitches just under the machine sewing line so when pulled they will be pulled against this line. Use a good sturdy cording to gather rather than thread as you'll be pulling it A LOT! This is a Size 50 Merc Cotton...which was given to me; but reminds me of nylon cording it is so strong.


4) Fill the pin cushions with emery to really make them special, they are small enough to use to sharpen your pins/needles with and the extra weight is so nice. If you need emery, I sale it on my Etsy Shop as well as these pincushions. It has to be shipped priority mail...but one cup will last a long time. One cup will fit in the same box as one Trio pincushion set...so you can save postage (I'll reimburse you the strawberry postage amount) by getting both at once. After you fill the strawberry with emery (to about 1/4 from the gathering stitches)...place a little circle of batting down as a buffer. You may need a pinch of poly fill as well to fill out the gathered top area as you pull it closed.



3) After pulling the gathers tight, hold this tension and begin to "lace" back and forth across the top area (still going under the machine sewing line) to flatten out the top area and smooth down the gathers. Go from side to side with long stitches.



Here you see the medium strawberry top after all of the gathering and lacing has been finished. I've made a last little tacking stitch, but left the loop up some...so I could draw my needle/thread through that. When I pull this thread, the loop will tighten down over it creating  a nice "tie-off". The long tail will remain until all of the embellishing work is finished for the top.

 So, almost all of these are not gathered...next I'll start the embellishing. But first...I need a nap!

Oh, and don't forget that these special little pin cushions need some lovely pins in them. There are so MANY types of pins on the market today. Different styles, colors, lengths, thicknesses...so many choices. If you are confused about pins check out this article on Do You Sew that showcases many different types of pins.

No comments: