Tea Cup Pincushion

How many of us have a chipped or cracked teacup that means something to us or is pretty except for that chip and we don't want to throw it away? Here's a fun project.

Materials Needed:

tea cup and saucer (chipped or cracked or perfect)

Material of your choice, steel wool #0000 (very fine) 1 pad will make 3 or 4 pinchusions depending on size

Fiberfill or scraps of quilt batting

Hot glue gun and glue sticks

needle and thread

Trims of your choice (ribbon roses, thin ribbon, gathered lace, string beads, etc.)

Measure the diameter of the top of your tea cup and triple it. You may use a material that will best suit your cup and taste. Any material will do.

If you have the matching saucer, first glue cup to the saucer, this will make the cup more steady as you use it.

Do a gathering stitch about 1/4 of an inch to 3/8 of an inch from edge. Tear some steel wool from pad and make a flattened circle a little larger than the top of the cup. Lay it in the center of your material circle. As you start to pull up the edge to gather it, fill with fiberfill or quilt batting. fill firmly. Finish gathering until it is closed and tie off. Glue into cup with gathered side down in the cup and you have a nice rounded top on cup.

Now trim with gathered lace, ribbons, string beads, ribbon roses, etc. Have fun and be creative.

The reason we put steel wool at the top is to keep your pins sharp and clean. Pins will go in pincushion and bobbins that we will be using can sit on the saucer in easy reach.