Susan Penny shows you how to make this delightful pincushion in less than an hour.
As each new year begins, so does my need to get better organised. This January, I am about to move into my new workroom. It is slightly smaller than the one I am in now, but it is warmer and will I hope, when fitted out, make me so organised that I will be overcome with busy-ness and creativity. In the meantime I must sort and organise the boxes of fabric and equipment that are bursting open in every corner of the old workroom…I dream of colour coordinated fabric trays, and boxes where my equipment comes easily to hand. This afternoon, fed up with folding and stacking fabric, and having a sudden creative urge brought on by the lovely fabric in the picture, I set about making a pincushion for my new desk. I drew around a pudding basin onto the fabric, and again onto another coordinating fabric using a ball-point pen. At this point in the making, do not cut out the circles, but place the fabric pieces right sides together and machine stitch around the circle following the pen line, but leaving a small gap for turning. Once you have joined the circles together, cut just outside the stitched line, leaving a small seam allowance. Turn to the right side, and stuff well, through the small gap in the side seam. Sew up the gap with small neat stitches, and then secure a length of thick embroidery thread to the centre of the pincushion. Stitch over the side and back through the centre, dividing the pincushion into segments. Continue until you have eight segments, then secure the thread at the centre. Sew a button tightly on both sides at the centre point. It took me less than an hour to make this pretty pincushion, which now has pride of place on my new desk.
