Jam Jar Pincushion

When I was rushing around getting things ready for the Craft-Tea Party and the Upcycling workshop I did recently, I encountered a problem. I needed to take some needles with me, and some thread, and a pin cushion to hold them in.

Not wanting to have a pin cushion full of pins floating around one of my bags, I hastily threw this together:

Jam Jar Pincushion

Now, I realise this is not ground-breaking crafting, and people have been making these for ages, but I was pretty chuffed with it, and wanted to show you just how easy it is.

From start to finish, the whole thing took less than 12 minutes-I know because I had set the ‘bipper’ for 12 minutes as I was baking some cookies (yes, I am a multi-tasking domestic goddess. Really, I am…)

This is what you need:

• clean, empty (obviously) jam jar-I have to always give mine the ‘sniff test’ and make sure they are not old chutney ones that still stink of vinegar…
• fabric
• scissors
• needle and thread
• something to stuff your pincushion with-I used an old sock, but would not recommend it-will explain later! Maybe wool off-cuts, or even good old cotton wool
• glue gun
• small piece of felt (optional)

This is what you do:

• Pick a fabric that lifts your heart and makes you smile

Old duvet I found in the charity shop

• Place your jam jar lid on top of the fabric and draw a circle around it that is about 1-2cm bigger in diameter than the lid
• Cut it out-I used pinking shears because I had some, but not essential by any means
• Take your needle and thread (thread can be any colour, you won’t see it) and very roughly tack (hand sew however you can) around the edge of your  circle about 0.5cm from the edge
• Place your stuffing inside the circle-like I say, I thought I was being ingenious using an old sock which I had just relegated to the textile recycling bag

BUT in hindsight this wasn’t ideal as it was very hard to poke pins in to, so unless you have lovely soft wooly old sock, I would use something else!

• Then pull both the loose ends of your thread gently together so the fabric gathers around your stuffing like a drawstring. Tie it off somehow-again, it doesn’t have to be neat

• Apply a good squidge of glue to the jam jar lid

(I used my trusty glue gun, but something like copydex should work pretty well) and then press your newly made pin cushion onto the top, and press down firmly for a minute or two

• Then I cut a little rectangle of felt to pin my needles to, and keep them together when ‘in-transit’

Ta-daaaa! I love a bit of speed crafting 🙂

And here are the cookies….