The Problem of Pins

While making my new Peony dress last weekend, I noticed that I don't have a very good way to deal with pins as I sew. I obviously have a pincushion, one of the old-school tomatoes, but it's not possible to pull a pin out and stick it into the cushion without stopping my sewing momentum. Dealing with pins is currently a two-handed job, one holds the cushion and the other the pin.

It's seems to me that a pincushion mounted to my wrist may work better for me, as it would only require one hand to put the pin in the cushion. I'm willing to give this new cushion type a try, especially because I had an urge to do a little embroidery this week.

To put the cushion together, I used two 3" square pieces of felt and embroidered one of the pieces using lazy daisies, french knots, and split stitch. I then machine-sewed the two felt pieces most of the way around with a 1/4" seam allowance, simultaneously sewing both ends of a 1/2" strip of elastic in place. I turned the felt right-side-out, stuffed the cushion will Polyfill, and hand-sewed the hole closed. Voila! Pincushion!

I'm not sure how easy this pincushion will be to use at my sewing machine, mostly because I made the elastic too short. It is definitely not comfortable to wear it around my wrist, though it may work to wear it around my fingers as shown above. We'll see how useful it ends up being when I sew up my next project!