Largest Pin Cushion in the World

The other morning, I let Tori watch Playschool as I ducked upstairs to have a quick shower. I returned to find that she had taken every pin out of a blanket I was binding and stuck it into the sofa.

I present to you the largest pin cushion in the world ..

Now it is a sport for her. Find something mum is working on and put the pins in the sofa.

Cheeky girl!

Moo Pin Cushion Tutorial

It has taken me long enough to put this tutorial together ...

The tutorial is designed to make use of all those white boxes you have floating around from your moo business cards. I know that they are pretty popular in the craft world ... so lets get started!

Step 1: Cut Fabric

Cut a rectangle of fabric 5" x 7". Thicker fabrics work better than thin ones, but you could put iron on interfacing on the back to stiffen it.

Step 2: Fold and Pin

Fold the shorter sides together and pin. This is the side that we are going to use to turn it inside out and stuff! So make sure you leave enough room to turn your pin cushion inside out. I generally leave about 2 inches, but if you think that 2 " is too small, just test your hand size.

Step 3: Stitch It

The stitching does not have to be symmetrical as you are not going to see it. Make sure you double back with your machine so that when you turn the pin cushion inside out the stitching does not come undone. I have left 0.5cm seam allowance, using the guide on my machine. This project doesn't thrive on exactness, so it wouldn't matter if the seam was 0.5 or 0.8cm ...

Step 4: Press open

I always like to press my seams open so that when I come to stitching it together the seams are nice and straight (even though you won't see it).

Step 5: Sew the ends together

Sew the ends of your pin cushion together.

Step 6: Create the corners

Creating the corners is a bit tricky. Fold down each corner so that they area triangle. Then we stitch the corners down. I usually use the 1.5cm guide on my machine to do these, but you can see the inch length in the picture. Stitch, pin, press and then sew each corner until you get an object that looks like this.

Step 7: Turn inside out and stuff

I generally don't bother to trim the corners, especially for a pin cushion. I use the stuffing from an old cushion, but you could use felt offcuts, or anything else that is going to make it possible to stick pins into. Stuff the stuffing in and then slip stitch the pin cushion shut.

Step 8: Mount it

Your stuffed pin cushion should fit inside your moo box. To stick down you need to score the surface of the plastic with sandpaper so that it is rough, then use some heavy duty glue to glue it into place. Place glue on the bottom of the box, around the inside of the box then insert your pin cushion.

Step 9: Embellish it

You can add some ribbon around the box so that it doesn't look like a moo box anymore!

Step: 10: Stab it with pins!

If you end up making a pin cushion using this tutorial, please leave a comment and let me know where you have blogged about it!

Fun things with old Moo boxes (and Giveaway)

I decided to make myself a new pincushion to add to the varioud pin cushions I have in my workroom. Previously I was using a little bat soft toy, but it doesn't have a hard bottom to it so it would frequently stab me ...


I had some old plastic boxes left over from my Moo mini business cards and I I thought I would make a pincushion out of them. I had been using them to house pins, but when you knock them over they spill everywhere.


The first one was from scraps from the Wigglesworth Quilt. A bit of a patchworky pin cushion. My lovely husband helped me with the glue to stick the pin cushion to the bottom of the box.

The second is from scraps of the "skull love" material I am using at the moment ... owww! I am going to refine the pattern and then post it on my blog when I am finished!

What a fun project!

The Giveaway...

I have two empty boxes left and I am going to giveaway two custom pin cushions to people who make comments anywhere on my blog. doesn't matter where you are, I will post them to you!

So I am going to give you until the 23rd of January to make a comment ANYWHERE on my blog and I will put your name into a hat (a top hat no less!) and draw out two names. The more comments you make the more entries you have.