Nate's Design Wall Pincushion

Welcome, Foolish Mortals.

Since my son loves my pins and watched me put pins into the foam boards that are currently being put up as my design wall, he thought he should be allowed to stick pins into my boards as well. I decided I needed a pincushion on my board that he can play with, and hopefully, preserve the integrity of the board longer.

Thus, we have Nate's Design Wall pincushion now in the works. I went to the internet to find what people recommend for pincushion fillings. Gravity, however, meant I had to be creative.

I decided I wanted it rectangular and that I would use crushed walnut shells. My husband had quite a bit still in the bag from the local pet shop that he'd bought for cleaning his reloading brass.

I utilized what I remembered from a tutorial on how to make a weighted blanket, to make my inner pouches. This created the columns to put the walnut shells into, which will be turned on their sides and actually be rows within the pincushion.

For the inner pouch, I used 3 layers of cheap fabric. I alternated which of the outer layers I sewed to the middle layer, so that I could stagger the columns for the shells, since I was hoping that would allow the shells to be added more evenly instead of having hills of shells with valleys where the stitched rows were. I think it worked out great. I did decide that I wanted it a little thicker (since the pins are longer than the pouch was thick), so I have made 2 inner pouches that will nestle together.

I have started on the outer casing for this pincushion, and plan on adding some fiberfill around to soften it in case my son falls into it. More pictures will follow when I finish it.

Happy Crafting.