Kathy Zengolewicz

Here is what you will need to get started:

• A fabric scrap of your choice
• A jar with a lid and a band
• Cotton balls or fiberfill
• Card stock
• A glue gun

Using the lid of the jar, cut out a circle the same size as the lid from the card stock. Again, using the lid of your jar, trace around it on the wrong side of your fabric. Increase the radius of the circle one inch and cut out the larger circle.

Layer the fabric, cotton balls or fiberfill and lid and place them inside the band. Press the lid down so that the cotton balls and fabric form the pin cushion. Check to see if you need to move the fabric or cotton balls to avoid creases in the material. Make any adjustment that are needed and then hold everything in place and use the glue gun to glue the fabric to the underside of the lid. I know, this step would really work better if you had a couple more hands, but do the best you can.  ;>)

Trim away any excess fabric and hot glue the card stock to cover the fabric edges. Line the band with a small bead of glue and insert the pin cushion into it. Press it firmly to help it adhere.  Add the lid to the jar and you have a new pincushion.

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Canning Jar Pin Cushion

For the sake of clarity, I’m going to be using left & right to designate which side of the fabric I’m working on.  Here’s a step-by-step how-to:

Thread your needle and knot the end.  Bring the needle up from the wrong side of the left piece of fabric.

Now take the needle and bring it over the left side and push it through the right piece of fabric, from underneath.

Bring the thread up over the right piece of fabric.

Once again, the needle goes over top of the right piece of fabric and underneath the left side of fabric.  Keep on repeating the process of go over one piece of fabric and underneath the other half of the fabric.

Here’s what the finished stitch looks like:

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stitch of the day – baseball stitch

They also look really neat with the hanging loops interlocked together, like this:

Of course, now I want to make more and embroider them!  Too many projects, not enough time…

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part two of the how to of the day: softies hearts for Valentine’s day

To start off with you’ll need a selection of fabric (I’m using printed 100% cotton quilting fabric) scissors, thread, fiber-fill and a hand-sewing needle.

Because I don’t want the hearts to look perfect, I just cut them freehand – with no patterns.  The largest heart is approxiamately 5″ across, the smallest is 3″ across at the widest point.  Place the right sides together and pin:

Now sew around the edges, using a straight stitch and a 1/4″ seam allowance (or wider if you’re more comfortable working with that width)  Make sure to leave a minimum one inch gap to turn them right side out!

Use your scissors to snip a small slash in the seam allowance of the top of the heart, in between the two bumps.  Don’t snip all the way into the seam – you don’t want to unravel it

Now turn it inside out and use your scissors (chopsticks also work beautifully) to stuff the heart.  I didn’t stuff it too tightly – it depends on the look you want.

I like to use a baseball stitch to close up stuffed projects like these, but you can use whatever stitch you prefer.

I want to be able to hang the heart softies up after they’re done, so I’m using an embroidery needle & some cotton embroidery floss to make a hanging loop:

In my next post I’ll show you how the hearts turned out

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how to of the day: softies hearts for Valentine’s day

I decided to try it myself – and quickly ran into a snag.  I only had a few wooden beads, and they’re all small ones.  I didn’t really want to drive 20 minutes to the closest craft store, so I’m using small beads.  I’d definitely recommend using a larger bead (and inch across or more) – the small beads are quite fiddly to use.

Here’s what you’ll need to do this project:

White glue, strips of fabric (approximately twice as wide as your beads), wooden beads and a paintbrush.  I also used a knitting needle to poke the ends of the fabric into the beads, but you can also use the end of the paintbrush.

Start off with brushing a strip of glue around the widest part of the bead.  Wrap the fabric strip all the way around the bead, and trim, leaving a overlap of approximately 1/8″.  Cut the fabric into a “fringe” on the top and bottom.  Cutting the fabric every 1/4″ will allow you to push it into the bead hold more easily. Now take your paintbrush & glue and brush the wrong side of one fringe.  Either take a knitting needle or the end of the paintbrush and push the fabric into the center of the bead, smoothing it down.  Repeat all the way around the bead, until it looks like this:

This is what the center of the bead looks like with the fringe cut, but not glued down:

Repeat the same steps on the other side of the bead.

Here are three finished beads – you can see how small they are!  I think I may use a sealer or a coat of Mod Podge to protect the fabric when the glue is all dried.

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how to of the day: fabric covered beads

Click here to read the full article.

That got me thinking about different kinds of belts… and how I could make them   I’ve wanted a Japanese-style obi belt for a while now – not neccessarily as wide as this one:

But that same general idea (the pattern is McCall’s 4953 by the way)   I don’t think it would be that difficult to make, and could look really cool with several different fabrics (silk perhaps?) use to layer it.  Ah, so much inspiration, so little time!

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sewing your own fashion accessories – great ideas for belts

It’s for “Moniqa’s Flowers”, just click here for the instructions.

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free instructions for a pretty flower pin

It’s pattern #3715

It’s nice to see more men’s patterns being included – they’re hard to find sometimes. This is pattern #3708.

I’d wear some of these blouses I think I need more time for sewing! This is from pattern #3684.

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Simplicity Patterns fall sneak peek