Shaker Style Spindle Pincushion - This was made from an actual Shaker piece I have in my collection. Designed to be decorative or used as it once was to hold needles, pins & spools of threads. Both kits and finished ones have aged wooden spools with brightly colored flosses wound. A great way to utilize your favorite vintage scrap of cloth on the pincushion - fabric is included with all other materials but you might prefer your own. 6-1/2" tall.
Kit for Spindle Pincushion $78 Sorry this item is now discontinued
Finished Spoolrack Pincushion no longer available

THE LADIES HOME SEWING COMPANION - A PINCUSHION DOLL
A doll sewing caddy/pincushion taken from antique ones (the concept), a cookie cutter woman I love from an antique collection (the outline) and antique paper doll styles of the late 1800's (the underwear look). Body outlines, hair and face designs are silkscreened on to body fabric, but you can use the paper patterns included to make more dolls. There is not much machine work as most of the doll is finished by hand. Her arms will be drawn and sewn from the arm pattern and her skirt is stuffed to become part of her whole figure. The apron, which has a pocket for small scissors, and her bodice are appliqued on. The needle keeper (shaped like an old-fashioned pocket once worn around the waists to hold various everyday sundries, especially sewing tools); and the strawberry emery hang from her waist. Her broad hips become the pincushion. All of her features and hair are simple and relaxing embroidery. Under everything are wood forms to define her shape and give her standing presence. Her oval wooden base has two spool spindles fitted out with old-style wooden spools which you wind with thread for display or you can use the spindles for your own actual sewing threads. If you wish to make more and do not have or wish to purchase the additional wooden parts or silkscreened bodies, you can use the included patterns to make your own. She is intended to be solidly stuffed with wool (the best pincushion stuffing), but you can use wool for upper parts down to below hips and other stuffing for lower skirt.

Finished Pincushion Dolls no longer available.

FULL KIT - Has all fabrics, wood pieces, silkscreens and supplies.
Full Kit in Brown Prints $115 Being discontinued - last ones on Sale Pages
MINI KIT - Has all wood pieces, printed cloth bodies and supplies - you supply your own fabrics. $88 Being discontinued - last ones on Sale Pages

EXTRA PRINTED BODIES $18.00 Add to Cart
WOOL STUFFING - Necessary wool stuffing (8 yds) May only be ordered with this kit or pattern.$9.50 Add to Cart

NEW! THE PINCUSHION DOLL AS PATTERN ONLY
Make this charming pincushion doll using all your own materials. There are supplementary instructions to cover either cutting your own wood pieces or making just the doll part with no base using heavy cardboard. A pattern is given for tracing the embroidery for face and hair.
Pattern Only $18 Being discontinued - last ones on Sale Pages with Bonus Free Printed Bodies Added.
Recommended to use the Basic Doll Body Fabric sold on my Fabrics page - $7.75/yd Add to Cart and the Wool Stuffing sold above
PDF VERSION AVAILABLE (PDF will be emailed to you once order is processed). $18 Add to Cart

HEART PEDESTAL PINCUSHION IN PENNY RUG STYLE ~ KIT

Hearts are not only for Valentines but are very collectible at any time - I have a large heart collection of antiques with hearts. This 8" tall (including wooden base) pincushion is made of hand dyed wools in the penny rug style and stuffed with wool roving which allows pins to glide in. This kit is very easy to do and can be made in an evening with relaxing (and addictive) penny rug hand sewing. Everything is included (stuffing too). All you will need is finish for the wood - this is explained in detail in the kit. Decorative scissors are optional (because you may want to store your own best 4" embroidery scissors) but I do offer some decorative ones in the old-fashioned shape shown in the picture (click on image at right). If you have made others of my Pincushion collection from the past, this one fits in nicely.

Kits $54 SORRY, KITS NO LONGER AVAILABLE

NEW - PATTERN & INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE YOUR OWN You will need to supply some kind of make-do base plus scrap pieces of wools, floss and stuffing. $12 Add to Cart Or, PDF version $12 Add to Cart
Decorative Scissors - Antique style 3.5" scissors same shape and black as in the photo. (No longer available).
Decorative Scissors Style 2 - Antique style 3.5" scissors same shape but in antique silver. (No longer available).

 

 

 

A PAPER PIECED HEX PINCUSHION ~ Kit or Pattern

I have always been drawn to hex quilts and my Hitty customers will know I have included hex quilts in Hitty scale for years. Recently I saw some made in canning jar lids, but not content with that because I wanted more color expression that using my older sewing-pincushion top box idea, that would be just my style. So here is a new pincushion kit, really easy to do with nearly all handwork with the hexes supplied in the kit printed on reusable freezer paper. Pincushions are stuffed with wool (also in the kit) and all is over a foundation of a round paper box, included. The kit only has one fabric combination as shown, but to inspire you to see the possibilities to use your own scraps, I made up 6 more for the picture (click on image at right).


Kits $48 Being Discontinued.

Pattern/Instructions Only - If you want to gather all your own materials this may be for you. $18 (includes freezer paper hexes). Add to Cart

Hex Pincushion Pattern as PDF
(no freezer paper hexes provided - you will print your own) $18 Add to Cart

 



VINTAGE STYLE SEWING BOX SET
With so much emphasis on sewing in dollmaking, it is no wonder dollmakers are also attracted to old fashioned sewing accessories made from scraps and materials at hand to protect and hold safe these precious items. I have gathered together a pincushion top sewing box with attached strawberry emery, two needle cases, a flat style tomato pincushion, and a scissors case. Available in pattern only version, limited edition kit and finished as a special gift for yourself or for someone else. Kit has all materials including the papier-mache foundation box, vintage style mixed prints, wool roviing to stuff both pincushions, buttons, and other notions. Finished sets are made up in either reproduction fabrics or vintage fabrics as shown above and include fancy snipping scissors in the 7-piece sets.

Pattern Only $12.00 Add to Cart
Papier-Mache Box $4.00 Add to Cart
Limited Edition Kit $48.00 Sorry, not available at this time.
PDF Available $12 Add to Cart

DOLL'S SEWIES FOR ACCESSORIES (scaled for dolls) ~ These items come as a very sweet and fun kit for small dolls or items can be ordered finished. Early American ladies spent much time on their needlework which was often kept in their pockets (a pouch that hung from their waists). This is a set of working miniature brass scissors and a set of patterns for a tiny scissors case, flat tomato pincushion and a strawberry emery. All items are well under an inch and easy to make from your silk (or cotton) scraps. They are nice to hang from doll's apron waist on a silk ribbon.

Kit with Scissors $18
Finished Set of flat pincushion, scissors case with  scissors and emery $57
Finished Emery $19
Finished Flat Pincushion $19
All items above are on sale pages.

Finished Scissors and Case $19 SOLD OUT



This is the set that the Pattern will make.

 


 

MY ORIGINAL VINTAGE STYLE PINCUSHIONS - I have always been intrigued by the wonderful and often whimsical pincushions that were created by women long ago. I have taken my own "folk art" liberties in the designs, feeling that it is well within the nature of these pieces. Historically strawberries and birds figure prominently as well as pincushions on pedestal bases - usually these were created from broken and saved glass oil lamp bases in the spirit of making use of everything. I have instead chosen to make my own bases of turned wood treated to look in character. My bird pincushion has the added feature of a spindle for spools of thread. Stuffed with the best fine wool for preserving needles and pins.

SORRY ALL 5 OF THE ORIGINAL PINCUSHION KITS AND FINISHED VERSIONS PLUS THE MINI STRAWBERRY ARE NOW SOLD OUT AND DISCONTINUED. BUT ... READ BELOW.

FOR THOSE WISHING TO MAKE ANY OF THESE DISCONTINUED VINTAGE STYLE PINCUSHIONS:
Once all of these very popular kits were discontinued, I had proposed to make a composite version of all of them in PDF format. But after considering how to revise these kits which contained all the supplies and wood bases into a set of patterns, I felt that the amount of work to explain how to find and rework the wood pieces as we did in our workshop for these kits would be rather pointless since the pieces came from many sources and more importantly needed to be reworked with major power tools. Of course, the cloth parts are another matter and are fairly easy to make with the patterns and instructions. My conclusion is that there are many objects, including commercially available wood turnings, to be found that make wonderful bases. By keeping the original instructions intact, a creative person could see how to use other forms for bases of their own making. Even a trip into Pinterest searching on pincushions will turn up many ideas others have used from candle bases to vintage oil cans. So after all, I have decided to group the 5 pincushions in one PDF in their original form. It will then by up to you to adapt the pincushion part on a base of your choosing. Included are the original instructions and patterns. PDF $18 Add to Cart

 
 
Bird Kit $45 SOLD OUT
Finished Bird Pincushion no longer available		 Strawberry Kit $45 SOLD OUT
Finished Strawberry Pincushion no longer available

Round Pedestal Kit $45 SOLD OUT
Finished Round Pincushion no longer available

Pear Kit $45 SOLD OUT
Finished Pear Pincushion no longer available
Crazy Quilted Kit $45 SOLD OUT
Finished Crazy Quilt Pincushion no longer available
MINIATURE STRAWBERRY
This is just like the larger one above, even with its own turned wood base, but is only 2" tall. Just right for gifts or for a doll. Comes in tidy little brown gift box.

Tiny boxed kit $18.00 No longer available
Finished Tiny Strawberry Pincushion no longer available