How I Went From Frumpy to Fabulous in Fifty Minutes
I stumbled across some extra felt in my fabric stash. Giddy from all the cute projects on Pinterest I decided I needed a new pincushion made of felt.
Warning – going on the line to read stuff on the interweb leads to side projects that divert you from your important goals.
My old pincushion was a ball of old (but clean) stockings. File that under “stuff mom used to do that I do without thinking about it.”
Since my felt was green I chose the turtle to be my design muse.
I started by cutting a pattern from paper. I drew an oval for the body then cut a slightly larger oval (about 1/4″ larger all around) for the shell. I cut two pieces for the head and one piece for each flipper.
It turns out I have A LOT of green embroidery floss. How did that happen?
I chose a contrasting thread and a matching thread.
I embroidered circles on the shell using the contrasting thread and a running stitch. I started 1″ from the outside of the cloth.
I added eyes using the contrasting threads and little decorative knots. I attached the two pieces of the head together on all but the end using a blanket stitch and the matching thread. I stuffed the head with batting.
I pinned the head and legs to the bottom fabric and pinned the top fabric to the bottom. Since the top fabric was larger than the bottom, there was a little bit of puckering. I used a lot of pins and adjusted a few times to get the puckers even.
Using a running stitch and the contrasting thread I stitched the top and bottom fabric together about 1/2″ from the edge of the fabric. I stopped with about 1 1/2″ left and stuffed the inside with batting. The batting is really packed in there tightly.
Finally I finished the edges with a blanket stitch in the matching thread. I had to fudge it a little bit around the legs and head. Somehow I was able to fake a blanket stitch by sewing a running stitch and looping the thread around the edges of the fabric.
The shells were a bit ruffled so I used a pressing cloth and some steam to flatten down the edges.
What do you think? I think it’s a big improvement.