Finished item

[liadethornegge]

So, I finished the little embroidery bit and made up the pincushion. Yay. Only problem is it's ugly. No, really, ugly. Lumpy and uneven. The embroidery is pretty, and all silk and nearly without mistakes *cough*. But, still. Lumpy.

I think the reason is the fabric I chose to stuff it with, and the method of stuffing. I must ponder future assemblies further.

Comments

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

I made a pincushion recently that came out somewhat lumpy (I stuffed it with wool scraps). I join you in pondering better assembly methods!

(I actually did the same design, but just in black and white!)

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I rolled up a length of thin suiting wool for stuffing and then folded the extra linen around it. I think I should have used thicker felted wool, cut down to the right size instead.

I took the pattern from the Medieval Arts and Crafts blog (http://medievalartcraft.blogspot.com/)

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too--I'm getting slightly obsessed with brick stitch! I wonder if they stuffed pincushions with roving rather than fabric? Might be worth a try.

[vikingsparrow.livejournal.com]

I think it's really pretty, despite what you say about the lumps. If you want to avoid the lumps next time, you could line each side with quilting batting before you assemble it and stuff it. That way the quilting batting would normalize the lumpiness. It's not period, but it might work.

Thanks for the post, by the way. I was going to make a pincushion soon.

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I like the embroidery. It's just the roll of fabric I stuffed it with that makes it ... .bulge in wierd ways.

I thought to use tapestry stitches, you know, through the entirety back and forth to clamp it down like you do sofa cushions. But that just made it lumpy. I removed them last night after taking the photos, so now it's bulging out like I don't know what.

Oh, by the way, the dimensions are completely made up, so don't take it as documentation :)

[unclrashid.livejournal.com]

You might try some fluffy boiled or fulled wool and cut it in the right size rectangles and just stack them up.

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was my plan to begin with, but I couldn't find any offcuts of heavy wool. I may have cleaned them all out (the horror!)

[helwig.livejournal.com]

I have some wool that could be used for that!
I am thinking about doing the stacking up rectangles myself.
I spent yesterday doing the super-secret-project anyway so it is going forward.

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I like the embroidery too. And I've been putting it to use already :)

I just unpicked all the stitches through the entire pincushion that made it all lumpy. That was a bad idea on my part. I guess I can live with it being a little bulging, rather than exactly square :)