i've got pins and needles . . . .

i've been thinking about making this for AGES

today i had literally minutes to make something
so i gathered up my ingredients
and jumped in with both feet!

ingredients:
an orphaned russian doll
a scrap of fabric
some plain pins
some fancy pins
a styrofoam egg

open up your doll
cover the egg with the scrap of fabric
you want to pull the fabric tight - i used stretch velour
pin fabric to bottom of the egg
cut of excess fabric

pop the covered egg into the doll body
i didn't use glue as it was a perfect fit

load with a few pretty pins
and you're done!

this was so simple
but
i love her!

pincushion trials and tribulations!

My mission for wednesday
was to make a pincushion
i had the idea in my head
i was in the mood for making
so off i went to my craft room to get to work

after a quick rummage through my
vintage embroidered linen cloths
i found this tray cloth
i used a large embroiderey hoop
to select the section i wanted
marked out a circle and cut it out

i then made a suffolk puff
but didn't pull the threads tight

then i made another the same size
with a plain linen napkin

i filled the plain puff with a LOT of polyester stuffing
next i pulled the threads tight - very tight

*POP*
oops that was too tight and the thread just wasn't up to it so it snapped under the pressure

feeling slightly annoyed i re-did the puff with stronger thread
and tied it up as tight as i could
whilst wishing i had an extra pair of hands to help

i popped the plain stuffed puff into the embroidered one so that the hole was on top under the embroidered linen and stitched a vintage dorset button on to the outer puff and a plastic button onto the plain puff pulling nice and tight to get a nice dimple in the middle

hmmm anyone else thinking this is all rather over complicated?

then i pulled in the threads
to finish the puff and tied them off

okay so it does looks quite pretty
but at the end of the day it's wasting the plain napkin 'cause no-one can see it.
So i left it on the side and cracked on with making another version which i'm not going to show
as it's for a swap ;op

********
After working on the secret pincushion and having learned from some of my previous mistakes, i came back to this one and decided NO i don't like it and dismantled it!
That plain area NEEDS something i thought
so i got out a hoop and sewed on this little phrase that's been going round and round my head
it seems very familiar {not the words themself as i know they are song lyrics} and i'm worried i may have lifted the idea from someone else
but i've no idea where the inspiration came from?

the pin marks the spot for a button
to give a nice middle dimple

dimpled!
i used the plain green stuffed puff for the inside again with them placed in opposite directions so the button sits nicely in the hole off the puff, i didn't bother with a button on the bottom as it's a real faff trying to get the needle through the holes of both buttons and it was nice to see the green showing through the puff-hole!

The lettering's a bit distorted where it got stretched
for the dimple but it's only for me so hey-ho!

For some reason i always seem to over-complicate what should really be a simple project, everytime i take part in a swap i make twice as many things as i need because i can't work out how to make something and have to make several prototypes!!!

Now i've got a couple of different pincushions under my belt, i think i may make a few for the shops
do you think they would sell?