Pin Cushion Design Tutorial - Part 2

If you have ever made a pincushion using a Compact Disk as the bottom...then you'll have no trouble with this tutorial. It is essentially the same kind of process...only I like to use canning jar lids instead. This tutorial is sized for the "wide mouth lids"; but could be reduced with very little effort to work with the regular size lids too. Canning jar lids are available in most standard grocery stores...you might have to ask "where". You don't need the "rings"...just the lids. Here where I am, they are about $3.50 for a dozen. If you can't find the lids...then any pair of sturdy circles measuring about 3.25 inches across the center will work. Cut them out of quarter inch wood, for example...but remember to sand the edges! Hugs.   Supplies Needed: Fabric for top of pin cushion (nothing too stretchy or too dense) Fabric for foundation of top (muslin, thin cotton) Fabric for inside lining (muslin, thin cotton) Cotton or Cotton/Polyester or stuffing Silk Ribbon, Embroidery Threads, Beads, Etc depending on the specific Pin Cushion Design chosen Two wide-mouth canning jar lids Strong thread/cording to gather and tack tightly Optional: E-6000 Glue

Step One: Trace the Circle on the Design sheet at Part 1 of this Tutorial on to your Foundation Fabric. This tracing is on the back of the fabric.

Step Two (Optional): Each design will include a reverse design that includes "dots" to mark the position of major elements in the design...such as the top/bottom of leaves, center of large flowers, spokes of the wrapped rose, etc. Transfer the dot markings from your chosen Pin Cushion Design to your Foundation Fabric Circles to mark placement of flowers, leaves, etc...as you wish. You can also freehand all of the design if you don't want to create it so literally.

To transfer the dots...first, punch a hole with a needle over every red dot in the design. (This photo has no dots, I just used the top/bottom of leaves and the center of flowers, etc and eyeballed where to punch. Then, I went back to the design sheets and added little red dots ...which will make it easier for you to see where the needle should put a hole.)

Here is how the design looks with just the holes on the back. 

Now, use these holes as placement for a sharp lead pencil...and transfer the "dots" to the muslin foundation fabric.

Step Three (Optional): Annotate your design so that you can clearly understand "what the dots mean". Here, for example, I have used different colored pins to go over the dots again for different design elements (red dots for the spokes and center of the Wrapped Roses, larger pink dots for the French Knot Gathered Roses, green dots for the leaves); have draw a line between the top/bottom dots for each leaf; and (later on) have added a squiggly line to remind me of which leaves were detached chain stitch ribbon leaves instead of the stab stitch ribbon leaves.

Step Four: Place the Top Fabric over the foundation fabric. Be sure to keep the annotations side of the foundation fabric down, so you can see it. Stitch these two pieces of fabric together by running a machine zig-zig along the outside drawn line. (Forgot to take a photo before the stitching was done...but, hopefully you get the idea from this "after" shot.)

 

Step Five: Complete the embroidery, silk ribbon, and beading as the design reflects. (Shown in Part 3 of this tutorial). Set this completed top section aside for now.

Step Six: Take the fabric for the lining and trace a circle using the outer-most circle on the Pattern in Part 1 of this tutorial. Using a strong thread/cord gather this circle until you have an opening about 2 inches across. Tie off the cord/thread. (I used a ball of perle thread to show you that there is an opening when this circle has been gathered up.)

Step Seven: Fill this "lining bag" with poly fill. Use small amounts...over and over...stuffing and packing until the lining resembles a tight little round pillow. Take a piece of cord and criss-cross over the opening to keep the stuffing in place and to draw up the sides to create a nice shape. Poke more stuffing inside if you need to to get this nice and firm. This will be the inside of the pin cushion.

Step Eight: Take strong cord/thread and gather the finished top of the pin cushion.Place the stuffed lining and then one of the large mouth jar lids into the top. Draw up the cord and gather the top around the lining ball of stuffing...and around the jar lid. Draw this up tightly (that's why you need really strong cording). Take a few stitches to anchor...and then criss-cross the excess thread until you have secured the gathering pleats as nicely as possible. You might need additional pieces of cording to get this neat.

Step Nine:

Using the canning jar lid as a guide, cut a circle of felt about one-inch larger than the lid on all sides. Gather this around the lid. Secure the gathering thread.

Step Ten: Use E-6000 glue or tiny stitches (or both) to secure the bottom felt piece to the top of the pincushion. You can also cover any space between the two with trim if you desire.

Tomorrow, we'll talk about the first of the Pin Cushion Designs (PCD) in this series.

Pin Cushion Design Tutorial - Part 1

I've been working on some designs for pin cushions...or they could be used flat on book covers, pillows, etc.

However, I need to also tell you "how" to create the pin cushion once the design has been stitched. So, there needs to be a general tutorial really...on custruction...before the real design is shared.

So, I'll be taking a couple of days to post a tutorial on how to use the designs and how to create a really firmly stuffed pincushion once you've stitched the designs.

Today, here is the basic layout of the pincushion top section and the Legend that I'll be using for the different elements of each design. This will change as time goes on...and I add new elements to the list. But, I'll update that for you when it needs to be adjusted.

You'll need this to understand the positioning of the embroidery, beading, and silk ribbon work...and how big to cut your fabric, foundation, and lining.

Tomorrow...I'll walk you through the creation of the first design (lot's of photos)...Then, on Tuesday I'll post the first pin cushion design...PCD-1

There is a second design completed also...and it will be posted when I get the example stitched. There will be others to follow, so it might be a good idea to set you up a file folder for downloading these photos as each design is posted this year.

Hope you are going to find this new design adventure beneficial. Feel free to use the symbols to and blank charts to create your own designs as well.

Five Petal Monogram - T

 

Missing...Almost...

 

  Well, what a couple of days I've had lately! Nothing too dramatic...just boring stuff mostly. I did manage to finally get the drapes done for my brother, and I'm sure he was glad about that! I learned that black fabric makes a wonderful catcher...for every human and dog hair in my house! And for every fuss ball, dust particle, and piece of thread off of my sewing room rug!   My laptop has been super slow. And no, it's not a virus or such. I keep it equipped with software to stop that kind of stuff...even though I still am tormented with spam on my email and blogger comments...which annoy me to no end.   Nope...my problem is that this little cutie (see I'm talking nice...it may be listening...) is an older model...with only a 32-bit processor. Now, when I got it...I had no idea if 32 was a good number or not. It has about 2GB of RAM...which is nothing in today's market of 8GB normally. This means that large downloads of "updates" just take up so much space...it has to be "cleaned out" every now and then.   So, about a year ago...I went to Office Depot to see if more RAM could be installed. The technician opened her up...(I about had a heart failure)...and pronounced that there was an empty port...so I could add another 2GB of memory. Wonderful! Let's do it! I paid the about $50 for the extra card and he installed it...but...it didn't "take". After another 30 minutes of trying to figure out why...and checking his techie manuals...which said that the card should work. He finally determined that the processor speed was the problem. The memory of 4GB could not be "read" by a processor that would only handle about 3.2 (or really 3) GB...hence the "32" part of the 32-bit.  There were no memory cards for 1GB on the shelf...so I was stuck.
Instead, I purchased an external hard drive "notebook"...(about $100...but they took the $50 un-usable card back...thankfully) which holds about 150 GB...limitless to me! All of my photos (including all of the CQJP and Blog stuff), my documents, and large programs not sit there...and I direct my traffic to them at the "H" drive, instead of to my normal "C" drive. This speeds things up considerably.
Now, for the problem...some programs, sites, etc...just don't give you the option to change the drive you want "stuff" to go to. So, every time I update these softwares...I get more stuff on my C drive...and have to go in and manually move it to my H drive. I spend a couple of hours yesterday doing that. Then, I spend a couple of more...transferring other files. Then, I ran some cleaning software and also decided to de-frag my C drive to get things in a better "alignment" so to speak. All together...my little laptop got a workout...about 6 hours of constant moving, compressing, adjusting, etc. Most of this time, nothing else could be happening...so only checked my email between "events"...which was about every 2 hours or so.   BUT, the good news is that my baby (see, another nice term) is purring...and happy! My latest boring drapery project is done! And, I'm designing some silk ribbon project ideas for you! So, if you have read this entire boring post...you are in for a treat soon! Okay, even if you didn't read it...you'll still get the treat. Now, I'm off to go stitch the example I just finished designing! Come back and visit tomorrow...and it will be almost done I'm sure! Hugs, hope everyone has a great weekend!

"S" is for Shelley

Hugs!

Five Petal Monogram - I

 

Here's "I"...thanks Denise, had no idea it was missing.  

Paris for Darlene

 My work on Darlene's block "Je T'aime Paris" is complete. After writing in the little journal, it will be in the mail tomorrow toWilma in the Netherlands to finish up. The lamp post is my most favorite part of this block...and I did not stitch that (wish I had!). Cathy K did...and it is so wonderful!

 My contribution were some seams (sorry one is so blurry)...

a charm motif...

 and a poodle embroidery motif. I also did some general stuff like attaching a ribbon that Darlene has sent along, and a piece of accent trim below that piece.

 There isn't a lot of space left for Wilma to work...but, I'm sure she'll come up with a beautiful finish for the block that will just be gorgeous! Her work always is!

Jenny's Alphabet Mondays

If you have not heard...my pal Jenny is having a super celebration every Monday for the next 26 weeks! And she is sharing a free hand embroidery pattern. So, please go check it out. And, if you don't follow her Elefantz Blog...you really, really should! Not only is she a great designer...she is a very nice lady too!  You'll enjoy your visits! Hugs,

Productive but... Not Productive

This weekend I got a lot of things finished...however, none of them were on my To-Do List. Aidan was here all weekend...as we created Valentine Cards. Actually, she did most all of the work...and I helped only in punching the corners for the cards that were 2-ply paper...which were too thick for her to get the punch to work. Oh, and I contributed the spelling of some words...hugs! (See the corner of my card, that's Aidan's drawing of me, her, and Buddy. Aren't I slim? Ha!)

 We also made a necklace and earrings. The necklace is a gift to my daughter's boyfriend's mother. Wow, say that fast three times! "Mamma T" is the lady's name (we have not really met). But, she is being very kind and generous to my grand-daughter...and certainly very worthy of some of my beads...so I was happy to contribute all of the supplies! We created three strands and put them together into a necklace. Aidan did the middle strand with the little pendant.

 See the little bear? Aidan says that Mamma T loves bears...so, she shall have one on her necklace too. Aidan also re-learned about "patterns" and "repeats" while we worked.

Aidan went back home yesterday afternoon...with an arm load of cards and gifts! The dog and I were worn out! But, in a good way...and we both slept late this morning! All is good in my world today...and I hope that it is in yours as well!

Bracelet Completed

The bracelet is now finished. The first step in completing was to cut a piece of felt the same size and shape of the leather...using the same pattern. A little dab of E6000 glue helps to keep it in place so the edge can be beaded.

Using black beading thread and seed beads, the edge is covered in a simple slip stitch. I'm stitching about every 1/16th of an inch around the edge. Pick up a bead, take a stitch...pick up a bead, take a stitch...over and over again.

  The thread is ended with a couple of tiny stitches that cross each other to form a knot; the the needle is carried between the leather and felt and exits about an inch away. Cut the thread.

Hopefully, Sommer will enjoy her bracelet.

Bracelet Continues

Decisions, decisions, decisions. What beads to add to the cabachones on the black leather bracelet? I auditioned quite a few ideas; and right away wanted to bring the design out towards the sides...so a must would be adding some triangle or oval shaped beads. Ovals were just too similiar in shape to the cabochones...so finally, I settled on leaves. What to do around the center cabochon? I want to add some crystals...but, these large montees might be too much? Here are some of the other ideas that I (and my muse) auditioned.

Finally, this last option was almost the end result. More leaves to balance the ones added to the sides...and some black to subdue the bright of the blue crystals. But, I didn't like that space between the black montees. So, I included a small montee in blue to each side. I added some seed beads and hexes to the end of the leaves to widen the beading a little and bring it around the bracelet.

Now, I'm happy with the general idea. Next is to sew everything in place.

 Here is the finished bracelet top.Instead of beading the entire surface, I'm going to leave some leather showing. My daughter is not too "girly". She is a welder by trade...so, I'm thinking that this more "biker look" would be more to her liking. Tomorrow, we attached the felt to the bottom and sew everything together...encasing the metal bracelet shape between the leather top and the felt bottom.

Beaded Bracelet - Begun

It's been a while since I've done any beading, so thought I'd do a little of that today. This will be a bracelet for my daughter (if it turns out okay).

 I'm stitching on leather. Not thick, hard leather...but very soft, thin, and suble leather. It came from an old leather skirt I got at the Thrift Store.

As you can see, I've used this skirt before for other projects.

 Beginning requires a pattern. So, I'll start with a bracelet metal frame. That shape was rotated on paper and traced to get a pattern for cutting the leather.

Three cabochons are glued down with E-6000 and ready to start my surface beading.

 The first part of the beading is to enclose all three of the cabochones with beads. You can see that here on the right side of the stone (click on the photo to enlarge). Sorry it's so hard to see, but using dark beads on black leather is just that way.

 The first ring of beads is sewn to the leather. (This is the second row of my first idea...which was use double beads. However, they were too "full" so later I removed that row, and just added one bead at a time...which is "standard peyote".)

The remaining rings are sewn into the previous rows, using a circular peyote stitch....common in beading. For the last two rows, I changed from seed beads (sz 11) to Rocailles beads (sz 15). This decreases the wall of beads and curves them on top of the cabochon to hold it is place. What to do next? How to cover the remaining leather?  Good question...and my muse is thinking that over. So, just stay tuned...got to back to the TO-DO List before this project can be finished. Hugs!