One of my biggest struggles as a sustainability-conscious crafter is navigating the line between hoarder and re-user. How small of scraps do you keep from old shirts after a project? When is okay to finally throw things away? In this post, I will not be answering any of those questions…but I will talk about how I used some fabric scraps left over from my Boro-Mending Inspired Jean Jacket and my Up-cycled Housecoat projects. If you are wondering how to use scrap fabric that you feel a disproportionate amount of guilt about tossing, this could be a fun project!
Material
I had quite a few scraps of fabric left over from my jean jacket project. I made the lining out of sections of two separate cotton button down shirts: both of which gave me leftover sleeve fabric to work with. I also had pieces of the corduroy dress and cotton/polyester batting left from my housecoat project.
I also had an old wooden bowl from a set of my grandmother’s. I have more of them, so I think I might make this a series. The salad bowl is shallow and reminded me of a bulb pot: perfect for spring. In terms of other materials, I used a lot of my paper flower supplies, such as tacky glue, floral tape and wire, and pan pastels.
Method
My method for this pincushion was largely based on paper flower making techniques. I wanted to see if I could replicate any of the structure and realism produced crepe paper with cotton fabric. ‘Fabric Flowers’ are typically made from silk or synthetic fabric treated for structure and punched out with specialty metal tools. I learned a lot about that process in a Bernadette Banner video, but I will not be utilizing those techniques here. The pincushion itself will employ very basic quilting and pillow making skills.
Construction
Step 1 – Planning out Flowers
My first step was to get familiar with the anatomy of my two chosen spring flowers: the Striped Squill and the Himalayan Poppy. I googled pictures, did rough sketches, and drafted some pattern pieces to use to cut out leaves and petals.
Step 2 – Preparing Fabric and Pattern Pieces
Next, I had to figure out the best method to achieve the petal structure I wanted out of limp cotton. For the Striped Squill petals, I used fusible interfacing on the back of my fabric to give the petals the desired stiffness. For the Himalayan Poppy, which has much larger petals that would look strange with a white backing, I chose to use a gathering technique to help give the petals body and structure. Therefore, I didn’t treat the blue cotton at all. While the interfacing helped with fraying a bit for the Striped Squill, I’m counting on the fact that I will not be moving the petals around a lot to prevent fraying on the Himalayan Poppy.
Step 3 – Constructing Flowers
Stripped Squill
The first step was to cut out the pattern pieces for the petals and stamen. I usually do this by folding up my paper/fabric and cutting a bunch at once.
I then used pan pastels to color the stamen pieces. I glued each strip of fabric to the tape-covered wire.
Each flower consisted of six petals, which I applied individually. I then went back and used some watercolors to paint the back of the petals with navy blue stripes (as the interfacing was obscuring the original stripe in the fabric).
Finally, I arranged the finished blossoms in size from smallest to biggest, and taped them together with floral wire: alternating down the stem and spacing them evenly.
I forgot to take pictures of leaf construction for the Striped Squill 🙁 It was relatively simple, however, as I used the template I sketched in my notebook and cut that on the fold of the scrap fabric. I then glued the tape-covered wire down the center wrong side of the fabric.
Himalayan Poppy
My first step for the Himalayan Poppy was to create the large pistil in the center. I did this by rolling some scrap fabric around a piece of floral wire, and covering it with floral tape. I then used my fingernails to give it some texture.
I then used a similar technique to creating the squill stamen to create the poppy stamen, except I made it longer and wider and folded over the top of the strip to create some body for the anthers. I glued the strip around the poppy pistil.
I made all four petals out of a single, oversized piece of fabric, colored them with pan pastels, and then ran thread around the inner circle gathered the fabric around the flower centers I had just completed. Finally, I glued the gathered petal bunch to the flower center.
Next, I made the leaves. I cut out half of each leaf at an angle on corduroy wale to create the illusion of leaf veins. I then glued the two pieces together with a piece of floral between them. I wrapped each leaf onto the main flower stems of the poppies to mimic the natural growth of a real poppy.
Step 4 – Constructing Pincushion
The cushion portion was relatively straight forward. I cut circles out of scrap batting, backing fabric, and corduroy the circumference of the bowl. With seam allowance and the addition of a stuffing I figured that that would result in the cushion fitting nicely inside the bowl. Then, I quilted the top of the cushion (corduroy, batting, backing) to give it some structure.
Finally, I sewed the top and bottom right sides together leaving about an inch and a half open. I used about a 1/2 inch seam allowance. I turned it inside out, stuffed it with more scrap batting, and then whipstitched the pillow closed.
Step 5 – Bringing it all together
For putting the pincushion together, I chose to use hot glue for two reasons. First, it’s quick and easy. Second, the hot glue actually peels off cleanly from the wood with a little effort. This will make reusing the bowls in the future possible if I choose 🙂 I glued the bottom of the flower stems along the base and sides of the bowl for support, and then simply applied a ring of glue around along the sides and popped the cushion in.
Final Thoughts
This turned out a bit better than I originally thought. Are they as realistic as paper flowers? – definitely not. Are they pretty? – yes. Are In terms of usability, my biggest concern is the batting I used as stuffing. I found that thicker, blunter pins caused the layers of fabric inside to sort of bunch-up and not enter the cushion smoothly. I would recommend using another type of stuffing if possible, perhaps poly-fill. The fraying may end up being an issue over time, so I may investigate fray-check or something similar in the future. Otherwise, I think it is quite charming and it blends into all the real plants surrounding my crafting desk 🙂
1 comment
I love those blue poppies!!!
Sandra