Canning Jar Pincushions

I thought I’d share with you one of the projects that I did with one of the pieces of fabric from the layer cake that I mentioned in a previous post.

Now, I Pinned and read through dozens and dozens of tutorials, so I’m not sure which one to credit. I’m also not big on step by step tutorials so I guess if you need more explanation/visuals you can Google it 🙂

The reason I made this is because DH was sick of finding my embroidery/cross stitch needles on the floor in the living room. I like to stitch while we watch TV. So I thought hey, I should get a pincushion. Then I saw these on Pinterest and thought it would be great for holding my little scissors, needle threader or whatever it’s called, and DMC floss too. They turned out super cute if I do say so myself.

Ingredients:

• canning jar with lid and ring
• fabric (I got four out of a 10″x10″ square)
• batting (fluffy white stuff, it’s sold in bags. I sort of wish I’d saved the”guts” that my dog always rips out of his toys the second he gets a new one)
• felt, fabric, cardboard, or cardstock paper (your choice–I saw variations on all of them) to cover up the glued on fabric when you turn the lid over
• small magnet (optional; if you really want to be an overachiever)
• hot glue gun
• scissors

Directions:

1. Preheat the glue gun
2. Cut the fabric in a circle that’s about an inch larger than the canning lid all the way around. Just eyeball it. If it’s too big you can trim it back later.
3. Then cut the “backing” for the lid, whether you’re using felt, fabric, or card stock, a little smaller than the lid. It’s best to do this before everything else gets glued onto the lid. Trust me.
4. Place the fabric circle on your workspace with the colorful (right) side facing away from you. You want to have the ugly side up. Then, place a small bit of batting in the center. You don’t need as much as you think.
5. Place the lid, bottom facing up, over the batting and pull the fabric up and over like a galette. Glue the fabric to the lid. Trim any excess.
6. Squash the now-cushioned lid into the canning ring. At this point it may or may not close correctly. That’s OK, you can use those for storage too, just remember that the lid isn’t on so well. You can try trimming more fabric or using less batting but I didn’t find it helped any, three out the four I made close fine but the last one was a bugger.
7. Place the whole thing glued-side up, and use more hot glue to cover the fabric/glue mess with either the cardstock, felt, etc. etc. If you are feeling ambitious you can hot glue a magnet to that so you can pick up dropped needles more easily.

The Verdict: I have to admit that I have not held a glue gun since I was a pre-teen in Calvinettes (sort of a Christian Reformed version of Girl Scouts). So there was a little bit of finger burning involved. (Note: The glue is hot even after you squeeze it onto your project).  I was  pleased at how quickly the whole thing went together and how nice it looks.

This post shared at Simple Lives Thursday, Monday Mania, Frugal Friday