About

Cost: $ $ $ $ $

Difficulty: • • • • •

Time: 1h30

it is so easy!

Posted by frainky from San Francisco, California, United States • Published 5th April 2009

Tags

Food
Objects

Print • Embed

Key West Witch favorited Mushroom Pincushion 08 Aug 03:35
Sveta favorited Mushroom Pincushion 24 Jul 05:47
Kay T. favorited Mushroom Pincushion 16 Nov 16:45
Ni-chan<3 favorited Mushroom Pincushion 24 Nov 03:55
Youghurt Jaja favorited Mushroom Pincushion 08 Aug 00:41

Step 1
Find a suitable thread spool you can use as the base for your mushroom. Not only does it give some weight and stability to your pincushion but, believe me, it's a whole lot easier than sewing a mushroom stem from fabric!
Step 2
I had some lovely vintage wooden spools which were nice left as they were. If you don't like the look of your spool, you could cover it with paper or wrap ribbon around it. Another idea is to use a spool which still has some thread on for colour.
Step 3
Cut out 2 circles of different fabrics which are larger than your spool - drawing around a coffee mug or tea-cup should give you just about the right size. These two circles make up the head of the mushroom.
Step 4
Gather some light-weight fabric around the top of your spool. If you don't know how to gather fabric to make a ruffle then using a wide piece of lace is a good alternative - just wrap the lace around the top of the spool, pin and sew into place. Excess fabric or lace can be roughly stitched over the top of the spool as you can see in the next image.
Step 5
Select the round piece of fabric you cut in step 3 which you want to use for the bottom part of the mushroom head. On the wrong side of the fabric, position the spool roughly in the middle of the fabric and draw around it.
Step 6
Cut inside the circle you have marked out but do not cut right up to the edges - leave a good margin between where you cut and the circle lines you have marked out.
Step 7
Slip this piece of fabric over the top of your spool so the wrong side of the fabric faces upwards. Roughly sew the inside edges to the gathered fabric or the lace on the spool.
Step 8
Once you've sewn this part, you'll have completed the bottom half of your mushroom pincushion.
Step 9
Time to start sewing the other circle of fabric on top - I chose a dotty fabric. Place it right side up on top of the spool and start to attach it by the edges. Blanket stitch works well as it helps to prevent too much fraying but you can use any stitch you like.
Step 10
When you're more than half-way through sewing the top on, start to stuff your mushroom. I use a washable polyester fibre made specifically for stuffing toys - you could use cushion stuffing, remnants of soft fabric or even cotton wool is fine if it is merely for your own use, just don't get it wet!
Step 11
Continue to stuff and stitch until you get to the end. Your completed pincushion should look similar to mine.
Step 12
Jazz it up with some pretty pins :)