Floral Pincushion

I love to find old silver plated containers; small Paul Revere bowls, creamers or even candle sticks and turn them into pin cushions. I was lucky to find this silver basket which is perfect for an Easter gift.

Materials

small silver plated container

1" wired ribbon

polyester green ribbon

green velvet

wool sweater

pearls (optional)

Tools

scissors

candle or lighter

needle and thread

hot glue gun

Cut a 4" to 8" piece of wired ribbon. Place the cut ends about 1/16" from the flame of a candle or lighter. The flame will melt the ends so that they won't fray. Gather the ribbon tightly on one of the wires. Fold one end over in a diagonal and spiral the ribbon.
Fold the other end into a diagonal and catch all of the gathers by wrapping with the wires. You should have a flower that looks like this.

Cut a leaf shape from the green ribbon and seal the edges with the flame just like the flowers. Pleat the blunt end and secure with hot glue.

Cut a shape larger than your container. (I only had a small piece of velvet so I pieced another fabric around it knowing that it wouldn't show in the finished project)

Sew a loose running stitch around the perimeter of the fabric. Felt an old wool sweater (it must be wool) in a washing machine with hot water, then dry in a dryer. (I cut off one sleeve and rolled it into a tight ball shape) Place it inside the fabric and pull the thread to gather. Sew back and forth from side to side to capture all of the wool.

Glue the velvet and wool shape into the container. I used hot glue, but a silicone glue probably would have been better. Hot glue the flowers around the edge and tuck the leaves in between. You may thread pearls onto straight pins and stick into the flowers centers for a a little bit of glamor.

This might even persuade me to do that mending I've been putting off.