Eight- Square Patchwork Pincushion Tutorial.

As promised sometime ago a tutorial of the over-sized pincushions that I made from Cath Kidston fabric.
I have to say that the size of many of my pincushions can depend on the size of the fabric at the time. The floral fabric is Cath Kidston which I bought as part of a bag of patchwork fabric, so it had already been cut into the squares seen. This tutorial will show you how I made the pincushion and not the size as it could be adjusted to suit whatever fabric you have.

Instructions:

Cut a total of 8 squares, 4 for the front and 4 for the back. I have used a bright pink cotton fabric to compliment the Cath Kidston fabric.

Pin a floral and pink square together in pairs and stitch using 1cm seam allowance.

By putting the pins at right angles to the edge of the fabric they will be easier to pull out (I am left handed which is why the pins are facing this way), you will not hit them with the machine needle should you forget to remove them and you are less likely to catch yourself when sewing and get blood on your work!

After each seam you should always iron it flat. Whilst studying for all of my courses (degree mainly) we were always told 'sew then iron, then sew and iron'. Boring to hear at the time but very true. You get a perfectly flat item at the end.

You will then to add the pairs together to make two sets of four squares. The key here is to try and match up the centre which is nit always easy. It looks right when pinned and then once stitched, you open it up and it is off centre again! I tip that I have learnt to gain a matching centre is by ironing the seams in opposite directions. See picture below:

I hope you can see in this picture that the seams are going in opposite directions that way the seams can meet up without any extra bulk of fabric to push it off line. Try it on a sample ,put a pin directly through the seam before sewing. Then re-iron the seams again.

Carefully stitch as before.

Hopefully you will end up with a lovely matching seam centre like this.

Stitch both sets together to end up with the above.

Put right sides together and again try and match up the seams. Decide where the opening will be to put the stuffing in and stitch around the outside.
Again, put the pins in at right angles to the fabric edge.

Once turned round the right way your pincushion should look like this. Push out the corners so that they look as neat as possible.

Stuff the pincushion firmly and tuck in the raw edges.

Line up the edges carefully and pin. Then using matching thread stitch up the gap using small stitches.

Put the end of the decorative braid in the centre of the pincushion and attach it with a few stitches, then wrap it around the cushion to look like a parcel. Again stitch it in place.

The joins of the cord is then hidden by using buttons. here I have layered two flower shaped buttons in colours to compliment the fabric. I took the needle right through the pincushion and put another button on the back. By stitching right through the pincushion through both buttons will make the centre dip down and make it firmer in the centre. To cast off I wrapped the thread around the button and knotted it so that it sat underneath the button. You must make sure that it is knotted off securely.

Once I had finished the pincushion I saw that there was enough Cath Kidston fabric to make a needle case to go with it.

I cut the piece of fabric that I had left into an even rectangle and stitched a matching strip of braid down the centre front of the needle case cover.

Using some left over pink fabric I then lined the needle case to hide the stitching and to give it extra strength.

I then used pink craft felt to make pages for the needles to go into and stitched this through the centre of the case.

Very simple to do and gained a matching needle case too.

There is perhaps nothing really new here but for anyone who has not made something like this before it may be of some help. The set will be put in my Etsy shop in the next few days.

Since creating this tutorial I have created kit versions of this pincushion and they are available in my Etsy shop. They come with full colour picture instructions etc. Or you can place an order and specify a colour scheme.

Take care.