Friday, May 28, 2010

Friend's Birthday Needlefelted Pincushion

Here are the instructions for this pincushion, made for a friend's birthday, unillustrated because I forgot to photograph the process.

I marked a piece of canvas with the stitching line ~6"x6" and left a 2" margin around it to allow for shrinkage. I used wool, soy, and silk roving for the background, and some ready-made craft flowers into which I sewed pearl bead centers. Before I started felting, drew some composition lines on the canvas, just to give me a general idea of where I wanted to change colors. I backed it with a floral fabric and stuffed it with polyester batting and ground walnut hulls. My plan was to stuff it firmly with the batting and then pour the walnut hulls into a center pouch in the batting. It didn't work very well so the walnut hulls are scattered around in pockets in the batting.

This project didn't take a long time, but I really like the result. My friend said that she liked it, too, which was what I wanted. :)