Hello again! It’s Stephanie from Stephie B’s Designs here again to show you all another awesome project – how to make a diy pin cushion. We’ll start with making a pin cushion out of a mason jar and then I’ll follow it up by showing you how to make a magnetic pin cushion. Sounds great, right?! It is!
If you’ve been following my DIY blogs here in Peek-a-Boo Pages, you know that I love pin cushions. I don’t know what it is about them, but I love how many ways you can create something fun and unique to keep your handy dandy little pins nearby… and not under your feet!
The awesome thing about a Mason jar pin cushion is that not only can you hold your pins safely in place, but you can also store notions such as buttons, sewing needles, extra pins, and bobbins within the jar. Two birds, one stone! I’m making four Mason jar pin cushions today to give to a few of my sewing students. These make excellent gifts for beginning and expert sewists alike.
As I always say at this point… Let’s get started!
DIY Pin Cushion Tutorials
How to Make a Mason Jar Pin Cushion
Mason Jar Pin Cushion Fabric and Materials:
- A Mason or any glass canning jar (you can use any size you’d like!)
- A 6″ x 6″ square of fabric (I suggest using woven fabric, such as quilting cotton)
- Pieces of cardboard (you can use felt, but I feel cardboard holds the cushion on place within the ring/lid better, and I’m all about recycling)
- Scissors (I have one pair for fabric and one for everything else… as it should be!)
- Batting/stuffing
- Hot glue gun
- Needle and thread (the thread will not show, so the color doesn’t matter)
- Pen for tracing
Mason Jar Pin Cushion Sewing Instructions:
Mason Jar Pin Cushion Step 1: Round out the corners of your fabric squares.
Helpful tip: fold the square in half, then in half again. This will align the corners so you only have to cut once to round out all four corners.
Mason Jar Pin Cushion Step 2: Grab your needle and thread, and create a running/basting stitch around the the fabric, about 1/8″-1/4″ away from the edge.
I recommend ending just past where you began your stitches, and starting and ending on the same side of the fabric so it’s easier to pull tight and tie.
Your fabric should like like the image below.
Mason Jar Pin Cushion Step 3: Gather the stitches by pulling the two thread ends.
Once it’s gathered, you’ll have a nice little pouch, ready for stuffing.
Mason Jar Pin Cushion Step 4: Go plug in your hot glue gun. 🙂
Mason Jar Pin Cushion Step 5: Stuff the fabric pouch, holding and pulling the thread ends tighter as you stuff to begin closing – be VERY CAREFUL not to break your thread (as I did twice during the writing of this tutorial!).
As with all stuffing projects, you’ll use more stuffing that you anticipate!
Turn the cushion right side up occasionally to check the shape and stuffing amount.
Gently cinch closed and tie. Gently. With care. Carefully. Catch my drift?!
You may not be able to cinch the cushion completely closed; depending on how full you make it, you’ll most likely have stuffing popping out, even after you’ve tied the thread ends. That’s what the cardboard is for the in the next step.
Mason Jar Pin Cushion Step 6: Trace the inner circle of the jar ring onto your cardboard.
Cut out the circles.
Helpful tip: You may want to cut the circles just outside the line so the cardboard helps keep the cushion within the ring.
Mason Jar Pin Cushion Step 7: Hot glue your cardboard circle onto the underside of the cushion, ensuring the stuffing is all pushed in and the raw edges of the fabric are hidden.
I recommend running a strip of hot glue around one side…
…placing the cardboard/felt down, then hot gluing the other half down.
Inspect the cushion/cardboard and add additional hot glue as needed.
Once all sides are hot glued, hold the cardboard against the cushion for a minute or two until the glue cools.
Trim any visible threads.
Mason Jar Pin Cushion Step 8: Push the jar ring over the top of the cushion and pull the cushion through.
Mason Jar Pin Cushion Step 9: This is optional, but if you’d like to hide the cardboard, hot glue the lid onto it.
This also helps keep the cushion in place as you remove and replace the lid to use what you store inside.
Mason Jar Pin Cushion Step 10: That’s it! All done! Time to fill it up and admire your work!
How to Make a Magnetic Pin Cushion
Our second DIY pin cushion is the magnetic pin cushion. It’ll take just a few minutes of your time and is done in just a couple steps… in fact, the hardest part of this whole project is deciding what to use for your pin cushion!
Why use a magnetic pin cushion instead of a regular stuffed “tomato”-style one? First, it’s much easier to just drop pins into a dish/small bowl when cutting out patterns and sewing your project than to find room in your tomato to stick it in. And second, its a perfect pin picker-upper! Between my clumsiness, my toddler’s curious fingers, and my cat’s need to pull pins from wherever I’ve just put them, there are always pins on the ground. A magnetic pin cushion is a great solution for scanning the ground for those pesky pins that have escaped before bare feet find them!
Ready to get started?!
Magnetic Pin Cushion Materials Needed
- Small bowl, plate, jewelry holder, soap dish… anything you’d like to use for your pin cushion
- Magnets. The heavier duty the better, and two or three will work
- Krazy Glue, super glue, or any other permanent glue
Sewing Steps to Make the Magnetic Pin Cushion
Magnetic Pin Cushion Step 1: Probably the most difficult step… Find your pin cushion. I used an old Pampered Chef spoon holder for mine, but you can use a soap dish, small jewelry dish, little decorative plate – anything that suits your fancy.
Magnetic Pin Cushion Step 2: Glue the magnets onto the underside of the pin cushion. If you don’t have Krazy Glue or another kind of super glue, use what you have (glue stick, hot glue, etc.) and see if it works. Different materials will respond better to different glues, so you never know what will work unless you try!
Magnetic Pin Cushion Step 3: Turn the pin cushion over, and start using!
And there you have it! Like I said, this was a very simple project, but one I know you’ll find super helpful.
As always, I hope you’ve enjoyed this How To, and will take a look at some of the other awesome tutorials available from Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop. 🙂
(By the way, in case you were interested, the pattern I am using in the image above is the Roly Poly Romper from Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop. I absolutely adore this pattern, and have made it seven times now, with four more on my sewing table as we speak!)
Other Sewing Tutorials
Well, friends, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Please check out my profile down below to see what else I’ve written. You’ll see tutorials such as How to Make a TV Tray Ironing Board, How to Make a Self-Binding Blanket, How to Make Faux Layered Sleeves, How to Make an Aromatherapy Heating Pad… and so much more!
Hopefully through one or two of the how-to’s I’ve written – in addition to ALL the other amazing authors here at Peek-a-Boo Pages – you gain a little bit of knowledge, or at least learn some fun and easy projects.
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