A huge bag of baby shoes was lying in a corner of my sewing room. One daughter has a baby who was bought tiny shoes by seemingly everyone who knew her. She tried to offload the outgrown (and some unworn) ones onto another daughter for her new baby - but most got left behind at my house, sadly unwanted but still impossibly cute (as baby shoes always are).
I rifled through the bag before taking it to the charity shop. Surely I could do something with all that cuteness?
What made me think about pincushions, I'm not sure. Maybe it was just the promximity of the sewing machine and the pins all over the floor. Anyway, here it is.
How to Make a Pincushion from an Old Baby Shoe
You'll need:
old baby shoe with fabric around the top inside edgea smallish piece of matching or contrasting felt (you could substitute any fabric, really)
old pebbles or glass nuggets for adding some weight and stability (optional)
stuffing - toy stuffing, offcuts of fabric or wadding, etc.
sewing thread
To Make the Pincushion:
Cut a circle from felt. I drew round a roll of tape for the circle. It doesn't have to be perfect, but make it at least about twice as big as the opening in the baby shoe.
Sew gathering threads around the circle (straight stitch on the machine set to its longest setting is perfect) and gather the edges by pulling up the threads
Place some stuffing into the circle and carry on gathering. Once you've gathered as much as you can, bring the edges of the circle together underneath by handsewing opposite edges together and pulling all the edges in, bit by bit. You'll end up with a ball shape that looks a bit like this underneath
and this on top
Stuff the shoe: I used a few clean pebbles at the bottom for weight and stability, followed by offcuts of fabric and wadding (batting). Upcycling at its best!
Place the felt ball on top of the shoe and stitch to the shoe.
I noticed when photographing the finished pincushion that this shoe also gives me the perfect place to stash sewing needles - see below. Bonus!
If this one pincushion isn't cute enough for you, how about these baby boots for storage, perfect for pens, seam ripper, small scissors and thread snips? Possibly too much cute!
I like the idea of this pincushion in more ways than one. I'll be telling my granddaughter when she's older all about how she used to wear these shoes!
This pincushion isn't just cute - it's about using something in a practical way and holding onto memories. Love it.
