Jam jar pin cushion tutorial

The London Modern Quilt Guild is having a pin cushion swap at the January 2013 meeting.  It will be our ONE YEAR Anniversary - can you believe it!?  Being a part of this guild has been the most fun I've had and I have met the most amazing {and talented} people!  We are a varied group of ages, nationalities and interests and we all have so much fun when we meet! 

I decided that I would make a jam jar pin cushion for the swap - and here is a little tutorial for you too!  

Jam Jar Pin cushion

Materials

~Jam jar with a two-part lid -- I will call these parts the ring (which is the screw lid part) and the lid (which is the flat lid part wit the seal on it)

~Charm square (or any fabric about 5 inches square)

~Needle and thread

~Cardboard (cereal box or tissue box cardboard works perfectly)

~Glue

~Pencil

~Polyfil

~Ribbon (optional)

Instructions

1.  Trace the lid onto cardboard and cut out, set aside.

2.  Take your 5" charm square.  With a needle and long piece of strong thread, make a loose running stitch all the way around in a circle.  Keep the needle threaded for later.  Gently pull on the thread to gather the charm square like this:

3.  Place the gathered charm square onto the ring and start adding polyfil into the cupped shape.  Some of the charm square will be through the ring now creating your pin cushion!  Optional: add a bead of glue to the inside rim of the ring before you put the charm in.

4.  Take the lid and place on top of the polyfil and take some time to poke all the stuffing in under the lid so the lid can be pushed down into the ring, with the pin cushion puffed out the other side.  Tweak the charm square so there are no folds are creases (not shown).

     
5.  Using the thread and needle, pull on the gathered stitch again but just enough so you can still run a bead of glue between the lid and fabric. 

6.  Finish gathering the thread on the charm square until it is a circle and sew the charm square from side to side to hold it in place.  Knot your thread.  Be sure the lid (now with charm square and polyfil added to it) is pushed flat against the ring in lid and set aside.  If you put the optional bead of glue in the ring, this step will ensure that the lid makes contact to the glue in the ring.

You can trim some of the excess charm square off if you want.

Sew from side to side - not a pretty way to do it but it works - to
secure the charm in place and to be taught against the glue.

7.  Place glue on the cereal box cardboard you cut earlier.

8.  Place this cardboard over the [quite messy] exposed charm square edges that you have sewn from side to side.  This cardboard becomes the bottom of the inside of the lid - a nice place to write a little sewing message for your recipient once it is dry!

9.  Take your new pin cushion lid and quickly screw it back onto the jam jar so the cardboard is held in place against the lid while it all dries.  Screwing it on holds the lid flush against the ring so the cardboard, glue and charm square become a secure unit.  Please note that using this glue means it takes a couple of days to become less whiffy.  After a few hours, I unscrewed the lid to let the inside of the lid have air.  Hot glue could probably be used but I have not tried it!

10.  Glue the ribbon along the edge of the lid if desired. 

11.  Once the lid and ribbon trim are dry and not so whiffy (!!!!), your jam jar pin cushion is ready to be used!

These jam jar pin cushions would make a wonderful little gift for a son or daughter on their way to college or university!  Just add some mini scissors, a seam ripper, safety pins, a needle and thread and a few buttons and presto - a jam jar pin cushion sewing kit! 

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I hope you have fun making a jam jar pin cushion!  They are great because the glass jar gives the pincushion some weight so it stays in place on the sewing table while you pin, and the jam jar lid prevents the pins from disappearing into the pin cushion!  Once finished using the pins, remove them and store them away inside the jar - perfect!  The other great thing is that I am re-using jam jars that I already had here in the house!  Another great way to re-cycle, re-use, re-purpose and re-gift!

Have a great weekend! 

• Linking to Finish it up Friday with Crazy Mom Quilts
• and Can I get a Whoop whoop with Confessions of a Fabric Addict

P.S.  I used two squares from my Sew Stitchy charm pack (Aneela Hoey) for my pin cushions. 


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