You Can Sew-a-thon - Strawberry Pin Cushion

What is You Can Sew-a-thon!! ??

This adventure is designed to build confidence in a new sewist, kindle or rekindle the love of sewing, brush up sewing skills, and even encourage you to create a nice handmade something that can be given as a gift!   

Are you game?

First Project is a Strawberry Pin Cushion!!
--using this tutorial from V and Co. blog--

I have seen these on the Martha Stewart website, in my local fabric shop, and more recently at V and Co. where I was finally pushed over the edge to give this a go.  And, to my delight Vanessa created the perfect tutorial to follow!  So go over there and bookmark this page and together we will follow it to make a ton of cute strawberries in the 'nic of time for Valentines gifties for your sweet valentine or even just a few for yourself!

I mean, how cute would one of these be on a little gift box?

I always start by gathering up all my supplies.  After reading the tutorial and then trying one... here are the items I ended up using:

• Fabric scraps in red/pink and green.  I also experimented with a totally non-traditional choice for a strawberry and love the outcome!
• pen
• thread
• needle
• sewing machine (not pictured)
• yarn in place of the floss
• bits of left over batting in place of polyfil
• hot glue gun.  you know it's going to be a good project when you get to pull out the glue gun!

Following the tutorial directions I cut my fabric to size -- this felt like an easy part!

Next was making the ice cream cone shape.  I free handed the cut and came to find that this part is also very forgiving.  The shape isn't terribly important... since the curve becomes the top of the strawberry which I was happy to find out gets hidden with hot glue.  I *heart* hot glue!

I have to admit I was nervous until I opened up my cut and matched it to Vanessa's photo.  They look pretty similar!  Phew!

I went on to the first sewing part.  After all... this is Sew-a-thon!!  I used my sewing machine for the two lines below... but I could see just as easily doing this by hand.

How are you doing so far?  Motivated to give this one a try?  Are you mid trying?  Any questions?

I cut the little tail off as instructed, flipped this inside out.  All good so far. 

I stuffed the batting bits in the turned out strawberry.

I did the running stitched around the top and was excited when I really could pull the thread to tighten the top.  Looking back now, I think I pulled the top too tight honestly compared to the tutorial where it looks like it is actually ok to leave the top stuffing sticking out... since you cover it with the leaves and hot glue.  That might be why my strawberries ended up being skinny.  I like them skinny, but might also try the other way to see what it does.

I followed the instructions for the leaves (the tutorial has good instructions and pictures for this part) and found it fun to make this shape organic.  I did use my sewing machine to stitch the pieces together... but this is another great place to hand sew if you prefer.

I also made the pink one with four leaves... I would say it looks just as good as the five leaf one if you were wondering.

At this point I had my skinny strawberry and leaves!  I can almost taste victory and cuteness to gift!

I didn't have the floss recommended in the tutorial.  I did however have some gold rick-rack... I tried it out and guess what... it looked like a Christmas ornament.  Confirmed by Mr. Happy.  Here's a quick snap of the rick-rack in case you have the same stuff on hand.  That got me thinking about what else I had to use instead...

That's when it struck me to pull out some yarn.  Yarn to the rescue!

My other note here would be to make the yarn a tiny bit longer.  The tutorial recommends 9 inches, but once I knotted it and hot glued it in place I didn't have a long enough loop to attached them to my rotary cutter.  Yup, I would make the yarn maybe twelve inches next time.

Following the last bit of instructions was a snap!  The hot glue hides anything you may have been nervous about up to this point and it finishes fast!  I am a geek and sewed four strawberries up first and was able to hot glue them all in about 5 minutes.

I really like the results!  And I am already looking for different combos to try and thinking of all the lovely ladies in my life who sew and NEED one of these.  Can't wait to hear what you thought!!

I have also made up a button for the embarking of our adventure... a funny... cute... don't take life too seriously... and try something new button.  Take one, post one, share one if you like!  They are yours to use!

<br /> <a border="0" <center><a href="http://describehappy.blogspot.com src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g120/forphotoskitty/YouCanSewathon.jpg" /></a><br />

Sew-a-thon Details

We will pick 1-3 projects a month -- February will have two... the luggage tag is the second.  I will create the projects with lots of photos and thoughts along my creation process.  I may even show you ways I modify or give some things my own twist.  Then you give it a try and ask me and the other Sewists a ton of questions!  At the end of the month we will share our successes (and not so successes; hey we all have them) as they will all count as entries to an uber cool You Can Sew-a-thon prize pack!  -- think fabric, sewing notions, cute inspirational items, something handmade, and maybe even some chocolate!!

I am also very excited to hear any feedback you might have.  Did you like this, would you like to see more?  Do you have a project you would like to see us do?  What would you change?

Happy Sew-a-thoning!!