Pincushions.

I don't think I've written anything about pincushions before. This is odd since I love them - pincushions and needlebooks. I have a belief that the first thing anyone should make when learning to sew is a pincushion or a needlebook and that everyone should keep AND use the first ones they make forever. This doesn't always work out I realise, things get lost - I myself have lost a gorgeous needlebook made by the lovely Claire at Clarabella - it's here somewhere, I just don't know where. Neither do I know the whereabouts of the pincushion I made at school that the teacher took home to finish off after we stuffed them with tights!

However, I do have the one I made when I got my last sewing machine, a piece of canvas with a sample of all the stitches running across it, I also have a pincushion I made from tiny hexagonal patchwork that spent at least some of it's life stuck in an old, glass ashtray to stop it sliding off the table! My mom uses a needlebook that she actually made but the front of it is a tapestry of a horse's head that I worked from a kit when I was about eight.

Anyway, I've been a bit fascinated with wearable pincushions since the whole Alice/Mad Hatter thing and have been mulling over designs for pincushion rings. There are loads of amazing tutorials online for making rings from old bottle caps and elastic and a few designers making gorgeous versions - time for a Wychbury one!

I wanted something with a bit of Hatter-gothic appeal but still usable so I've opted for an adjustable ring base in our typical antique bronze rather than elastic. I've shortened the depth of the base a bit from the bottle cap designs so I had room to get a nice aesthetic dome into the shape without it being too high on the hand. I also wanted to achieve the crown effect from old velvet and silver pincushions so I've added vintage lace and a button to finish them off. I've also customised the pins they are shown with to resemble tiny hatpins and will be selling them with the pins included.

The first three designs are now available for listing and will be up shortly - I hope they go down well as I'm looking forward to showing them off at 'Treasure' in a couple of weeks. Here's a preview!

Here are a few links to the queens of the handcrafted pincushion and their beautiful creations as well as a couple of fab tutorials - enjoy!

PINCUSHIONS TO BUY

Namolio, divine crocheted pincushions.

Very Big Jen - beautiful felt creations, now also on rings.

Clarabella Craft, Visit Claire's blog for a list of stockists (Yorshire map pincushion is my favourite!)

Blonde's Backyard, on Folksy - very prolific designer and maker of bright, well made and well priced pincushion rings.

PINCUSHIONS TO MAKE

Finger Pincushion on Craft Gossip.com

If you like Crochet, a gorgeous cupcake pincushion on Good Housekeeping.

With beautiful 'How to' drawings, pincushions on Grey Duckling.

The definitive Wikihow bottlecap pincushion ring tutorial that I've used for the basis of my designs.

Paula x

Stitching Together.

My little girl is called Dara, she is four years old. This Christmas she has some spending money and to my absolute delight she wanted to buy a toy sewing machine she had seen in The Works in Harrogate. The whole family had gone up there to take some Wychbury work to The Stalls, the fab shop run by Natasha Harris. Natasha stocks amazing work including many of our fave Yorkshire Artists and we were thrilled when she also agreed to stock us.

Dara discovered the sewing machine while we were rooting around in the Dr Who annuals for Aidan, my six year old and was immediately taken with the fact that it is like mummy's but PINK! So, shaky though my faith the quality of a toy that costs £6.99 was, I liked her style and went with the purchase. From what I gather, all toy sewing machines are without a bottom thread and sew in a chain stitch. If they work and you secure the thread at either end it is perfectly possible to sew small items together and certainly embroider patterns. My mum had a gorgeous red Vulcan sewing machine that she passed on to me and I have had it, unused on display in my various houses for as long as I can remember. If distant memory serves, the Vulcan sewed in a neat chain that automatically pulled the fabric round so that you could do little to resist sewing in a very pleasing spiral!

Anyway, back to the charming pink plastic machine. I inserted the 4xAA batteries as instructed and was (perhaps predictably) disappointed that they didn't in fact power the tiny pedal OR any motor that may have existed, but instead poured all their 4xAA energy into playing 'Twinkle Twinkle' very slowly and very endlessly! Never mind I think, I'm sure it will work manually - alas, the chain stitch wouldn't catch and unravelled every time.

I must admit I wasn't entirely devastated by this discovery as I had been secretly hoping for an excuse to clean up my Mum's old machine and see if I could get it to work. A load of WD40 and a new clamp from ebay, painstakingly filed down to fit and it works! Dara is thrilled to bits to be using her Nanny's toy sewing machine and so am I. I still use an electric Singer sewing machine that belonged to my Grandmother from time to time and the thought of the endless stitching running from one generation of my family to the next is nothing but wonderful to me!

It is nearly time for me to buy a new machine and I am a little sad to think that anything I will choose to buy nowadays will almost certainly not stand the test of time like the ones our ancestors used. Fellow stitchers will no doubt all agree that sewing machines are like pets, they either become one of the family - or they don't. Some we bond enough with to forgive any malfunction, oil regularly and get repaired when they break, other we smack with our hands, swear at them and grumble at the endless torment they put us through until we can afford to replace them!

What I will remember when I buy my new machine is that it doesn't matter if a sewing machine plays 'Twinkle Twinkle' or can make a stitch in the shape of an chain of crocodiles. If it makes your shoulders tense up the minute you sit down in front of it and there's no way you would ever pass it on to your daughter then it's not worth knowing!

Paula x