Pear Pincushions

Once, I got a bunch of velvet sample pieces. They were too small to do much with them, but I kept them in a box with some other pieces of fabric.




I also had some scraps of felt and a bag of pure, white sand.

So I made pear pin cushions.

I didn't have a pattern. I just decided how big I wanted them and made a pattern of my own from a piece of paper.

The size of the pin cushions are about the size of a real pear. Except when I drew the pattern, I made the top elongated so that it would form a funnel for the sand.

I sewed the pieces up on the sewing machine, clipped the curves slightly.

I filled the pears with the white sand. I had to pound them on the table top to pack the sand in tightly. I wanted the pear to be jam-packed and really full.

I made the stems out of felt cut in a square with a leaf on top at one end. I rolled the square tightly to make the stem and hand-sewed it down.

I cut another leaf or two to be added to the stem. 

I held the stem in place while I pleated the tops of the pears, folded the fabric over and tucked it in to look like the top of a pear. Then I gathered it around the stem and sewed it all down tightly.

I really like having the sand inside the pincushion because it makes them stand up well and the sand polishes the pins every time they are pushed in and taken out.