Hearts and Crosses Pincushion Tutorial

Hearts & Crosses Pinnie Tutorial

Happy Hump day everyone! To celebrate that mid week hump here is a pincushion tutorial so you can get prepped for some weekend sewing. Over on Instagram I’ve been participating in the #teenytinypinnie parade. One of my pinnies was this little hearts and crosses pincushion. I dreamt this little beauty up while playing with my fabric scraps for another project. I was thinking about how gingham is the perfect little grid. Then I got to thinking about the simplicity of childhood, like the joys of playing noughts and crosses with a friend. I then took this idea and added a bit of girly charm. Some little appliqué hearts for the noughts and embroidered crosses with Aurifloss thread. Finishing off with a little tag of yellow cotton tape to the side for something a little extra bright and fun.

So here it is, my hearts and crosses pinnie tutorial so you can add some simple charm to your sewing supplies as well, or make one to gift to a special friend.

Finished size approx. 2.5”x 2.5”

Supplies

2 x pieces of scrap fabric (at least 3”x3”) for the back and front of your pincushion. I used gingham for the front and linen for the back
1 x piece of scrap fabric (Minimum of 2”x2”) for the hearts
embroidery floss of your choice (I used Aurifloss and DMC)
1.5” of ¾” cotton tape or ribbon of your choice for embellishment
iron on interfacing/stabiliser for embroidery
heat and bond or equivalent for iron on appliqué
water erasable marker
basic sewing supplies

Pincushion Instructions

1.Print out the pattern template provided for your hearts and crosses grid. Alternatively you can draw up your own if you wish.

hearts-and-crosses-pincushion-template Download

2. From your front and backing fabric as well as your iron on interfacing cut a 3”x3” square. Cut a 2”x2” square for your heart apliques.

3. Trace your hearts and crosses grid and your crosses centred on your piece of fabric for the front of your pincushion. I like to use a blue water erasable maker. There’s no need to trace the hearts they should be easy enough to centre up in the grid as they take up most of the space anyway. I like to trace my designs on before I iron on stabiliser as sometimes it is hard to see through the fabric after.

4. Iron your stabiliser to the wrong side of the front fabric. (make sure you are using a water erasable maker that doesn’t set with heat).

Note: if you don’t not have any iron on interfacing this is fine, you can omit this step. I like to use interfacing/ stabiliser for all my embroidery projects. I find it stops the darker threads from showing through and helps stop your fabric from puckering.

5.Next you are going to iron a 2”x 2” square of heat and bond to the wrong side of the fabric you have chosen for your hearts. you then need to cut out your heart pattern and trace around it with a pencil 3 times on the paper side of the heat and bond you just ironed to the heart fabric. Cut around these hearts with a sharp pair of scissors.

6. Peel off the paper backing and position the hearts (facing right side up) onto your grid in a diagonal fashion. Then press with a hot iron to adhere to your pincushion.

7. You are now ready to stitch the grid and crosses onto your fabric and secure your hearts. I back stitched with 2 strands of DMC cotton for the grid as well as for the crosses (except I used 2 strands of aurifloss here). I then used 2 strands of aurifloss and secured the hearts with running stitch.

8. Its now time to put your pincushion together. Take your 1.5” of cotton tape, fold it in half wrong sides together. Position it so the centre of your tape lines up with the centre of your top horizontal grid line. Baste it 1/8” from the edge.

9. Place the backing fabric and the pincushion top right sides together. sew around the outside edge (using a ¼” seam allowance) stating at the bottom and leaving a 1” gap. Trim the corners and turn your pincushion right side out . Rinse away your marker with cold water and leave to dry. Once dry give your pincushion a press with the iron.