Sunflower PinCushion Tutorial ~ Free-Tutorial.net

I have been asked by more than one person to give a tutorial of the sunflower pincushions that i make and been seen on my blog. I cannot take credit for this idea as it is not mine.

I first saw a tutorial on a French blog site, but the link is no longer available. I have added a few more steps into the instructions which i feel made it easier to make up the cushion.

I hope i have given you clear instructions and hopefully with the aid of the pictures you are able to follow it through the end and make these adorable pincushions. You can use any fabrics, the different fabrics you can use is limitless.

Things you will need to get started:
*iron
*double sided tape
*sewing cotton or you can use waxed dental floss
*sewing machine (optional)
*sharp sewing needle
*pencil
*fabrics
*jar lid or any other suitable lid
*cardboard
*stuffing for pincushion
*interfacing optional

METHOD:

firstly turn you jar lid down onto the cardboard like i have in the picture below, and trace around it.

now cut out the circle from the cardboard.

now place your jar lid onto the wrong side of your fabric that you are using for the base of the pincushion, and draw out the circle........now you need the height of the jar lid, therefor place it on its side and matching it to the circle already traced, go around and make little markings like the picture below.

now join these little markings with your pencil so now you have 2 circles drawn on your fabric.

now cut out your circle but you must cut outside your pencil marking, giving you about 1cm extra fabric, and put this aside for now.

now with your jar lid, faced down, draw about 8 more circles and cut these out where you have pencilled it. Therefore you do NOT have any extra fabric that has been cut out.

you should now have the jar lid, a cardboard cut out circle, a fabric cut out circle and 8 smaller fabric circles.

now get your fabric that you will use for the top of the pincushion, this can be fabric or perhaps you would like to do a cross stitch piece to go on top for this. I used some fabric, spotted the picture i want to show on top and traced the circle on the wrong side of the fabric using my jar lid faced down on it. Now cut it out but cut outside the pencil area perhaps 1.5cm extra fabric.

you should now have the cardboard, the jar lid, the top fabric, 8 circles and one larger one as per picture below.

now at this stage you may want to iron on some interfacing on the fabric that is going to be the top of the pincushion, in my case its the one with the teacup on it, and you may also want to iron some interfacing on the bottom fabric in my case being the big green circle, i do strongly recommend that you use interfacing if you use very fine fabric, for fabric that is rather thick, you should be able to skip the interfacing.
..

now place the cut out round cardboard on top of your fabric that is going to be the top of the pincushion, mine is the one with the teacup.

with the iron, iron the edges, folding them over the cardboard and go right around it, giving you the following picture below........the purpose of this is to give you a circular ironed seam which you will use as a guide in a later step when constructing your pincushion.

now remove the cardboard, this is important as you do not need the cardboard anymore, so just discard it now. ..now put this fabric aside.

now get your 8 pieces of circles, these will form your petals for the sunflower shape of the pincushion. Fold each one in half and then fold again into a quarters, i used the iron so that they sit flat firmly.

now place the folded circles on the edge of your larger fabric as per picture, on the right side of your fabric, it is important that you put it on the right side of the fabric otherwise it will not work out.

now just tack them into place, don't worry about this thread cox you will pull it out later on. its just to make sure the little pieces do not move as you work.

now this step is option but i strongly recommend that you do it. .......you now use your sewing machine and in plain stitch, sew around the edge making sure you catch the edges of the little circles, about 1cm into your fabric, and then you can pull out your tacking now.

now turn it over, as you can see i had to use the interfacing, but you should be able to see your pencil markings, i placed some double sided tape into the very centre of it.

then i placed the jar lid to fit exactly into the circle that i earlier pencilled in on the fabric. The tape will hold it in place and will stop it from slipping all over the place as you work, and it will also stop it from distorting as you work.
now thread a sharp needle and tack on the out edge about 1cm into the circle, and gather it as you go. *you can use waxed dental floss for this part to gather the fabric.

when you get to the end, pull to gather and using your fingers just help it to shape evenly, make sure you do this very tight but do not break your thread, tie a good strong knot so that the gathering does not come undone. You now should have the following picture, and notice how your flower petals are now in position and sitting pretty? :o)

you are almost there now. You now get your top and just sit into position, then thread a sharp needle with matching sewing cotton, and begin to sew the top on to the edge of the jar lid, going through the petals, use very small tiny and very very close together whip stitches, try to make them hidden if you can.