On Saturday, I took my 2 sets of bottlecap pincushions that I had made to the fair grounds to enter them into the Arts and Crafts contest.
I'll be sure to post what I win (if anything!).
Here is the second set that I made. They are bottlecap pincushion ornaments. I'm not happy with the way I sewed the ribbons in so if anyone has a suggestion for a better way, PLEASE let me know. On the tree and 'be merry' ornaments, I just stuffed the ribbon into the pincushion and blanket stitched them in place. On the snowman one, I sewed the ribbon to the inside of the pincushion first and then blanket stitched around the top. You can see a little pucker on that one so I'm thinking that wasn't the best idea.
These little buggers are addictive though. They make you want to see what else you can make little and tiny.
I'd like to make some of the Christmas ones for gifts this year but I need to perfect them first.
Here's a pic where you can see the pucker on the snowman pincushion:
Also, yesterday I bought some metallic silver embroidery thread, so the next one I make, I'll use that for the snowflakes and maybe even around the snowman.
I'd love to hear comments about my little creations! And please leave suggestions on how I can fix my ribbon problem!
Finally, I'm ready to show you my first set of 3 bottle cap pincushions that I've been working on and that I plan to enter in our county fair arts and crafts contest.
As I mentioned here, I used the tutorial on Craftstylish for the basic pincushion but the tops are all my idea. I'm calling them "Flower Garden".
The Turquoise Flower
The Ladybug Daisy
The Butterfly Has Landed
I learned a new embroidery stitch for the white/turquoise pincushion - the Lazy Daisy stitch. My embroidery skills are all a bit rusty but I'm getting a lot better at the blanket stitch and I 'think' I'm doing the whip stitch correctly. Sometimes, if I can't figure something out, I just wing it. But I think that's kind of good because you can be more creative and what you make is truly your own.
I worked really diligently on my stitches for these (not that they're perfect). I didn't want any stitches under the flower petals, so I sewed the ladybug and butterfly onto the top layer of felt of each flower and then attached another flower layer on with the blanket stitch. So each petal is actually 2 layers of felt. If the judges are experts at embroidery, I'm sure they'll catch all my mistakes.
I'd love to hear any comments you have about my little flower garden.
And keep your fingers crossed that I win a ribbon :)
I've long admired the bottle cap pincushion - in all their tiny goodness. There are many sold on etsy using recycled soda or water bottle caps as their base and they are adorable. Little tiny works of art in felt. In fact, I bought this one from Refabulous almost 2 years ago. I long to start collecting them.
I started making one several months ago but never got past sewing the bottom to the band that goes around the side.
So this past weekend, I made one from start to finish. I followed the instructions on Craftstylish written by Jen Segrest who I believe has been selling these for some time. Instead of using a soda cap, I used a peanut butter jar cap - so my pincushion isn't little bitty, it's fairly big - about 3 inches across. I made the flower and leaf on top using my own flower drawing. It's alittle bit primitive but I tried really hard to keep my stitches uniform and it was good practice for me. I can't wait to make one with a soda cap.
The only complaint I have about the instructions is that it leads you to believe you can embroidery the side of the pincushion after it is completely finished. How do you do that? You have to bring your needle and floss up from the back of the felt but the back is all sewn up into the pincushion. You can't get to the back because your pincushion is complete.
Huh. That was a stumper for me. There I sit, all ready to embroider pretty flowers around my base but couldn't figure out how to do it. Next time I'm just going to embroider each piece before attaching them all together.
I really enjoyed making this. I think I've come up with a Christmas idea that would make cute teacher's gifts. I'll keep you posted with how they turn out. I have to collect more bottle caps first.
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