Easy DIY Pin Cushion
All I really wanted for Christmas was the See Kate Sew: 24 Learn-To-Sew Projects You Can Make In An Hour. I thought it would have a bunch of easy crafts that would take my sewing skills from basic to intermediate. And I would also get to make some pretty cool things in the process.
I really do love the book and I imagine I'll be working my way through the book over the next year or so. But for now I thought I would start with a simple project that would really help me get some reps in on my sewing machine.
So I decided to start with the pin cushion project.
The Project
Make a Pincushion
Instructions from See Kate Sew: 24 Learn-to-sew projects you can learn to sew in an hour
Results
I loved that I started with this project because it forced me to learn about interfacing (which I've been avoiding for some time now) and I realized that it's not as confusing as I thought it was. It helps that Joann Fabrics has a Pellon Interfacing Guide that helps select what type of interfacing is best for your project. (I highly recommend printing it for anytime you need a quick reference).
All right now on with the project!
Shockingly enough, the easiest part of this project for me was picking out the fabric. I just found a blue chevron fabric remnant at Joann Fabrics and easily paired it with a watermelon pink fat quarter. To start my project, I decided to iron on the interfacing first. (As opposed to the book which recommends cutting the pattern pieces out first and then ironing on the interfacing.)
Once I had the interfacing fused on, I traced the pattern pieces onto the fabric using a disappearing ink pen. (And I don't know why I didn't start using one earlier. It makes sewing projects so much easier and less messy than felt tip felts!)
Next up was sewing it all together. And this is why I wanted to start with this project in particular. I thought it would be a functional project that I could also learn to keep my seam allowance straight with! (I attempted to make a pouch about a month ago and completely messed up my seam allowance. It went completely diagonal on me! So needless to say you probably won't be seeing that one posted anytime soon! And I've learned to go slower while sewing projects.)
The only tricky part I found was figuring out where to place my pins along the seam. In the end I just sewed it so the ends folded down.
After that was done all I had to do was using some stuffing. (Hurray for finding a great deal on 5 lbs box of Fiberfil! It should be enough stuffing for all my projects this year!)
And finally I stitched it up with a simple slip stitch!
I was tempted to leave it as it was but it just didn't look complete yet. So I, begrudgingly, added some pink embroidery floss and a fancy gold button to it.
So here is how my pin cushion turned out
Overall I really like my new pin cushion! And you probably could make this 1 hour, if you didn't have kids distracting you and your mind didn't constantly wonder like mine does! (Or I guess this is the perfect nap time project guide!)
