Vintage teacup pincushion

Do you find you can never  have enough pincushions?!?

So when I saw this tutorial on how to make a tea cup pincushion on the blog at Sew Over It, I thought I had to make one of my own.

I popped into a local charity shop at lunchtime, and picked up this sweet vintage teacup for £2.  I chose a white fabric from my stash as anything patterned looked a bit busy.

I followed the instructions on Sew Over It's blog, and it was a super speedy make!

I think I might be making a few more, they would make great gifts for stitchy friends or vintage lovers.

I'm also trying to improve my photography as I don't think the pictures that I take do my sewing enough justice!  I took these shots in natural daylight and tried out lots of angles. I also used picmonkey to crop the images. The background fabric is something that I have in my stash, waiting to be turned into something! Would love to hear any good photography tips! 

A patchwork pincushion!

Over the last couple of nights, I've been making a patchwork pincushion. I made these as a child and thought it was time I had another go at making one as I was in serious need of a pincushion!

The pincushion is made using the paper piecing method.

How to make a pincushion:

Draw or print a template for one inch hexagons and cut the paper hexagons out.

Pin the templates to the wrong side of your chosen scraps of material. 

Then cut the hexagons out from scraps of  material about one centimetre larger than the templates.  

Fold the edges down over the paper templates and tack the edges down around the hexagons

Join the hexagons together piece by piece by over-sewing the edges, right sides facing. 

Once both pieces of the pincushion are completed, sew the two pieces together again with  right sides facing, leaving open three edges.

Remove the tacking and the paper pieces. 

Turn right side out, pushing out the corners and then stuff firmly. 

Finally over-sew the remaining edges together.

I think I might have to investigate some other pincushion ideas. Do you have any good suggestions?