How To Make A Two Tier Pin Cushion

My Two Tier Pin Cushion project is our January contribution to the brand new Craft Room De-Stash Challenge.

This particular project was just plain fun to make. 

If you are a sewist, you already know there are never too many straight pins or scissors in your sewing room. I’m working on adding more scissors and loving this new Two Tier Pin Cushion I crafted. 

Making a pin cushion had been on my project list for quite some time so I knew what my first de-stash project had to be! 

The Two Tier Pin Cushion is a funky folk art looking addition to my craft room sure to create conversation from time to time. As I mentioned, it was really just plain fun to make. I hope you are inspired to make one for yourself and if you do, please stop by and share it at the Merry Monday party so we can Ooo and Ahhh with you!

The Craft De-Stash Challenge rules are simple. Use what you have in the craft room plus up to $10 for needed supplies. I did not need to make any purchases for the Two Tier Pin Cushion project. Everything came from my craft stash.

Supplies for this project:

• One empty clean Tuna can
• One empty clean Chicken can (Canned chicken is yummy when mixed into Hummus!)
• Two scrap pieces of contrasting fabric
• Ribbon embellishments for rim
• Pillow stuffing
• Candle Stick 
• Paint for candle stick
• Mod Podge
• E6000

The first thing I did was to spray paint the candle stick. The brown spray paint was in my supply inventory and was recently used on another project still in the works.

While the paint was drying, I measured and cut the pink floral fabric to go around the outside of the cans. To measure, I just rolled the fabric around the can to see how much I needed. It’s a little bit like measuring wrapping paper around a gift.

Be sure to extend the fabric enough above the top and bottom of each can to create a lip to fold in. The top lip will help keep the actual pin cushion snug and the bottom will prevent the tin can from staining any surface.

My pink fabric is left over from this Baby Bibs & Burp Cloth project. 

Next I painted the outside of the can with Mod Podge and glued the fabric into place.

Before gluing down the inside top and bottom fabric, make cuts about an inch or so apart all the way around as shown in photo above. This step will allow the fabric to lay down properly in a circle without any bulges.

Paint on the Mod Podge and smooth the fabric onto it. I use the bristle part of my brush to do this step.

Allow the drying time recommended according to instructions on the Mod Podge. 

After the paint had dried on the candle stick, I used a small amount of  E6000 on the top and bottom area of the candle stick to secure it into place on the upcycled cans. A couple of heavy cookbooks were perfect to weigh it all down as the glue dried.

Next I added the embellishments to the rims of the covered cans using E6000. I don’t currently have fabric glue in my craft room but I did add it to my shopping list. The pink bias was left over from a skirt I made for my granddaughter. The brown beaded trim was leftover from a one of my daughter’s projects which I helped with. We always save the scraps no matter how small!

To make the bottom pin cushion which needed to fit around the candle stick, I measured my fabric the same as with the outside fabric. It measures about 14 inches long and 6 inches wide.

Remember the bottom can is the chicken can which is slightly larger than the tuna can and perfect for the bottom of our two tier pin cushion.

Fold right sides of fabric together and sew following arrows as shown above. Leave one end open and leave a space open in the side seam for inserting the pillow stuffing. Now turn the fabric right side out.

Fill with the pillow stuffing and sew the openings closed. I left two small openings along the long side which I closed by hand stitching. I used the machine to close the open end. Now just tuck your long pin cushion in around the candle stick and it is ready for use!

To make the top pin cushion I used a saucer as a template to cut out a round piece of fabric. I then begin to sew a long stitch by hand just as seen in photo below from my Velvet Pumpkins project.

Stuff your circle with pillow stuffing to the fullness you desire. Sew it closed and it’s ready to fit into the top can. Just tuck it in good and snug. I did not glue in either pin cushion. I only tucked them in.

Santa always fills my stocking with the best stuff and these adorable Breast Cancer Awareness straight pins were in my Christmas stocking last year. I lost my mother to breast cancer and I shared that story here. She was quite the talented seamstress and would be happy that I did finally learn to sew.

Please be sure to visit all of the fabulous Craft De-Stash projects for some great ideas you could put to use in your own craft stash. A big Thank-You to Megan of C’mon Get Crafty for organizing this craft challenge.

Check out these crafty projects